Agentic AI-assisted coding offers a unique opportunity to instill epistemic grounding during software development

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Palmblad, Magnus, Ragland, Jared M., Neely, Benjamin A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Palmblad, Magnus
Ragland, Jared M.
Neely, Benjamin A.
author_facet Palmblad, Magnus
Ragland, Jared M.
Neely, Benjamin A.
contents The capabilities of AI-assisted coding are progressing at breakneck speed. Chat-based vibe coding has evolved into fully fledged AI-assisted, agentic software development using agent scaffolds where the human developer creates a plan that agentic AIs implement. One current trend is utilizing documents beyond this plan document, such as project and method-scoped documents. Here we propose GROUNDING$.$md, a community-governed, field-scoped epistemic grounding document, using mass spectrometry-based proteomics as an example. This explicit field-scoped grounding document encodes Hard Constraints (non-negotiable validity invariants empirically required for scientific correctness) and Convention Parameters (community-agreed defaults) that override all other contexts to enforce validity, regardless of what the user prompts. In practice, this will empower a non-domain expert to generate code, tools, and software that have best practices baked in at the ground level, providing confidence to the software developer but also to those reviewing or using the final product. Undoubtedly it is easier to have agentic AIs adhere to guidelines than humans, and this opportunity allows for organizations to develop epistemic grounding documents in such a way as to keep domain experts in the loop in a future of democratized generation of bespoke software solutions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_21744
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Agentic AI-assisted coding offers a unique opportunity to instill epistemic grounding during software development
Palmblad, Magnus
Ragland, Jared M.
Neely, Benjamin A.
Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Biomolecules
The capabilities of AI-assisted coding are progressing at breakneck speed. Chat-based vibe coding has evolved into fully fledged AI-assisted, agentic software development using agent scaffolds where the human developer creates a plan that agentic AIs implement. One current trend is utilizing documents beyond this plan document, such as project and method-scoped documents. Here we propose GROUNDING$.$md, a community-governed, field-scoped epistemic grounding document, using mass spectrometry-based proteomics as an example. This explicit field-scoped grounding document encodes Hard Constraints (non-negotiable validity invariants empirically required for scientific correctness) and Convention Parameters (community-agreed defaults) that override all other contexts to enforce validity, regardless of what the user prompts. In practice, this will empower a non-domain expert to generate code, tools, and software that have best practices baked in at the ground level, providing confidence to the software developer but also to those reviewing or using the final product. Undoubtedly it is easier to have agentic AIs adhere to guidelines than humans, and this opportunity allows for organizations to develop epistemic grounding documents in such a way as to keep domain experts in the loop in a future of democratized generation of bespoke software solutions.
title Agentic AI-assisted coding offers a unique opportunity to instill epistemic grounding during software development
topic Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Biomolecules
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.21744