Haichao Zhu and coauthors ask: Precedent or Intent?

Haichao Zhu and coauthors ask: Precedent or Intent?

Haichao Zhu and coauthors investigate what coding agents follow when existing code points one way and a new task points another. They report that agents overwhelmingly followed repository precedent over their default implementation choices when the two conflicted. But precedent’s influence depended on where examples appeared: supporting local files had much more effect than sibling-resource files, and changing file placement alone could shift adoption. When task intent conflicted with existing code, written priority rules produced more joint successes than code examples alone in the reported comparisons. In the authors’ open-source repository validation, a harness-loaded rule also raised joint success. The authors argue that future changes need access not just to past implementation choices, but to the rationale and priorities behind them. Their findings make the placement and recording of guidance central to whether agents follow existing patterns or new instructions. The abstract describes controlled experiments and validation in four open-source repositories; it does not establish how broadly the findings apply beyond those evaluations.

Publication: 9e3bba8e-f1f0-40c9-89ad-c834a0615672

attribution — pass: The reading attributes the study to Haichao Zhu and coauthors, matching the listed authors, and frames results as what the authors report or argue rather than as established fact.

Authors:Haichao Zhu, Geyang Xu, Zhaorui Yang, Jiyuan Wang, Qian Zhang

summary — uncertain: The reading is faithful but hard for non-specialists. Central terms such as coding agents, repository precedent, sibling-resource files, joint success and harness-loaded rule are never explained or tooltipped. It also drops the figures that give the paper its force: 359/360, 96% vs 4%, 0% to 100%, and 0/120 to 117/120. The title is opaque. Smallest repair: briefly define joint success and harness-loaded rule, or flag them for term-library tooltips, and restore the key numbers in the summary.

three supporting local files yield 96% adoption, compared with only 4% for sibling-resource files, and changing file placement alone can shift adoption from 0% to 100% at a fixed example count

date — pass: originalPublished is 2026-10-28, which matches the v1 submission date on arXiv. The later feed date (Oct 31) is not used.

[Submitted on 28 Oct 2026]

support — uncertain: All five claims are grounded in verbatim abstract text, and the limitations are appropriate. However, one sentence is not labeled as an inference: 'Their findings make the placement and recording of guidance central to whether agents follow existing patterns or new instructions.' It goes beyond the abstract's narrower claim that the findings motivate design-decision traceability. Smallest repair: label it as Escape Meridian interpretation, or tie it to the authors' own wording.

These findings motivate design-decision traceability that preserves not only implementation choices but also the rationale and priorities that should guide future changes.

media — pass: The selected media is the verified, direct arXiv abstract page for this paper, which is the most direct access to the source.