Working with Background Agents

After watching teams use cto.new for a few months, I've noticed some patterns that help people get the most out of it. Here's what works.

Start Small, Build Big

Don't start with your most complex feature. Begin with something from your backlog—a bug fix, a small feature, or some refactoring work. This lets you learn how the tool works and builds confidence before tackling bigger projects.

Be Specific About What You Want

The quality of what you get back is directly related to how clearly you describe what you need. Vague requests like "improve the frontend" won't give you good results. Instead, describe exactly what you want changed, why, and what success looks like.

Include examples, link to similar patterns in your codebase, or reference designs. The more context you provide, the better the output.

Treat It Like a Real Teammate

You wouldn't merge a teammate's PR without reviewing it, and the same goes here. Review the code, test it, and provide feedback. The agent learns from your feedback and gets better at understanding your preferences and patterns over time.

Rethink Your Time Allocation

The biggest shift is realizing what you can delegate. Bug fixes, boilerplate code, refactoring—these can all be queued up and run while you focus on architecture, product decisions, and high-level problems.

Queue up tasks at the end of the day and let them run overnight. Wake up to ready-to-review PRs and use your best hours for thinking and planning.

The Catch That Isn't a Catch

cto.new is free, which makes people suspicious. The catch is that it expects you to treat it seriously: write clear instructions, review the output, and give it enough context about your codebase. If you do that, it works remarkably well.

Where to Go From Here

Start with a small task. See how it goes. Join the Discord if you want to chat with other people using it. Figure out which parts of your workflow you want to delegate and which you want to keep doing yourself.

That's it. It's not complicated, but it does require some intentionality about how you work.