The Hard Part of AI Coding Is the Second Change

Brian Woods argues that AI coding agents make a first working change cheap, but the second change is where systems break — an agent adding retries to a payment service can double-charge customers even while tests pass. He proposes requiring four answers before accepting a change: specification, validation, provenance and authorization, with agents proposing changes while independent workflows produce evidence and humans approve. He also shows a signed attestation of a build with failing tests can return VERIFIED, since authenticity is not release readiness.