Research and Design

Use Fine's ask flow to get a better grasp on your assignments, reducing the time it takes to start developing.

Getting Ready

As developers, our job rarely starts with the code itself. Most assignments require us to begin with some research, followed by a design of the implementation. This process can often be frustrating and time consuming, depending on the assignment on hand, but we can only start coding once it is done.

For example, you might need to add a new capability to your app's rich text editor. You weren't the person who developed it in the first place, so you start by figuring out where the code is, and what it does exactly. If you're lucky enough, everything is arranged well and is easy to find; in most cases, you will probably need to stumble over some code before you can understand what's going on. Only once you get a grasp on things, you will be able to move on to figuring out extensibility, and finally to writing your first line of code.

Easier with Fine

Instead of trying to figure things out on your own, you can do your research with Fine as your sidekick! Fine knows all about your codebase, which means you can ask anything you need to know about the code. Powered by AI, Fine will help you cut the research process shorter, leaving time for the stuff that really matters.

If you're not sure where to get started, here are a few examples of questions that you can ask Fine to help you out with:

Where can I find the code for the rich text editor?
I'm not sure exactly how the authentication middleware (get_user) works. Can you explain the logic?
I need to add a new field type to our forms for a new feature that I'm working on. What would be the best way to do this?
I need some help understanding the chat feature. Who can I talk to about this?
Can you explain the code in api/user.py?
Is there a reusable button component in the codebase?

Fine will start by collecting some context from your codebase, then use the information it has to give you an informed response. If you're not happy with the answer, you can always follow up with additional questions to make sure that Fine gets the details just right.

Fleshing it Out

Most questions you will start with are pretty general. After Fine's preliminary answer, you may want to continue and flesh things out better. Let's take our authentication middleware example from above - we could follow up the original query with a series of questions:

I want to add support for API key authentication. How can I extend the logic to make it work?
For some endpoints, we only want to allow one kind of authentication (api_key or token). What would be the best way to pass this information to the middleware?
To make this whole thing work, we also need an endpoint for generating API keys. What are the best practices for this? How and where should I be keeping them?
Can you write a detailed plan for implementing the new API key authentication method, including the endpoint for generating API keys?

We finished our conversation with a request to write a detailed plan for implemenation. This is really useful if you want to implement things on your own, as it often gives you a clear idea of what your development process should look like.

In some cases, however, you will want Fine to implement things for you. Check out the next use case to see how it works!