100 tricks from agentic pros*, from your first prompt to your own agent. Your agent checks which ones you use.
works inClaude CodeCursorCodex…
The 100
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Levels 1–10 · Stone Age
First contact
It edits, it runs things, it answers. You stop copy-pasting.
πSay please Doesn't help. Doesn't hurt. Doesn't count. You get a π on your card anyway.
Levels 11–20 · Fire
Context
It knows what you know, because you told it.
Levels 21–30 · Wheel
Checks
It proves the thing works before it says done, and you stop babysitting it.
Levels 31–40 · Bronze Age
Tools
It reaches past the repo: your CLIs, your computer, your inbox.
Levels 41–50 · Iron Age
Your setup
Rules, skills, hooks and memory that you wrote yourself.
Levels 51–60 · Steam
Second opinions
Another agent reads it before you do.
Levels 61–70 · Electric
Off the desk
It works while you sleep, sit on the couch, or close the laptop.
Levels 71–80 · Silicon
Orchestra
Many agents, one plan, and a setup that gets sharper with every run.
Levels 81–90 · Orbit
Beyond the screen
Your agents reach the team, the release, the pager, and your oldest code.
Levels 91–100 · Stone, again
Full circle
Fewer, sharper tools, and you understand them all the way down, to the metal.
Fossil record
The list is always 100. When a new level earns its place, an old one goes extinct and moves here.
extinct 2023"You are a senior engineer with 20 years of experience."
Role-play preambles. Today's models don't need the pep talk; they need the context.
extinct 2023"I'll tip you $200 for a perfect answer."
It sort of worked once. Nobody ever paid.
extinct 2023"Take a deep breath and work on this step by step."
Reasoning models think before answering anyway.
extinct 2023–24"Write the full code. No placeholders."
From the era of lazy models and "// rest of the code stays the same".
extinct 2024.cursorrules
One file in the repo root. Replaced by rule folders and AGENTS.md, which every agent reads.
extinct 2025Codex custom prompts
Deprecated in favour of skills.
endangered 2025–"ultrathink"
Thinking keywords. Effort is a setting now, and reports disagree on whether the word still does anything.
extinct 2024"How many r's are in strawberry?"
Retired as a benchmark. Still a good party trick.
More levels are coming
Agents change monthly, so the list will too. Leave your email and you'll hear from me each time 20 new levels are in, and only if they're worth your time. Nothing else.