tiny-stepping

Break the work into the smallest meaningful steps and implement only one step at a time. After each step, review the uncommitted changes together, confirm the direction is right, commit, then agree on the next step.

The workflow is: agree on the next tiny step, implement only that step, review uncommitted changes, check in on direction, commit, and repeat. Each step addresses one concern and stays independently understandable.

Use incremental commits when the direction is uncertain, the change touches risky code, or you want continuous validation. Small steps keep the codebase in a working state and make course correction cheap.

Incremental stepping adds overhead from frequent check-ins and commits, so it can feel slow for trivial or well-understood tasks. It is less suitable when the full change is small, obvious, and low-risk.

Each step should cover one concern, be independently understandable, and leave the code in a compiling or working state. If a step feels too big to review easily, split it further before implementing.