tiny type agent article

blog/2024-05-21-tiny-type-agent.md

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+---
+slug: tiny-type-agent
+title: Tiny Type Agent - Safely Improving Python Code
+authors: raymyers
+tags: []
+---
+
+As a companion to my talk at [The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise Summit](https://www.techstrongevents.com/the-artificially-intelligent-enterprise), I'd like to demonstrate a minimal yet **useful** and **safe** Autonomous DevTool.
+
+<img src="/img/Ray-Myers-AIE-talk-1080x1080.png" alt="Nopilot talk"></img>
+
+## Definitions
+
+Let's adopt these loose terms for now.
+
+* **Assistant**: Takes ~1 action per user interaction
+* **Agent**: Completes a meaningful task by taking many actions with environment feedback
+* **Autonomous DevTool**: AI agent packaged into a polished product, ready to integrate with your software development lifecycle
+
+
+## Use case: Add type-hints to legacy Python
+
+Suppose you like type checking for Python, but the hints are toilsome to add!
+
+This 400-line Python script shows how to address this with LLMs combined with safegaurds: [tiny-type-agent](https://github.com/raymyers/tiny-type-agent) on GitHub.
+
+* LLM suggests types
+* Agent uses Tree-Sitter to update the syntax tree in a tmp "shadow file"
+* MyPy validates the shadow file
+* Based on the result, Agent updates the original source or discards suggestion
+
+It is perhaps not yet a DevTool because it's not polished (for that, help us finish the larger tool [Menderbot](https://github.com/craftvscruft/menderbot)), but it shows a workflow that is safe enough to improve production code with extremely low risk. In fact, it has already been used to update production code at a major company and found bugs in the process.
+
+## Background
+
+<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aKrjE7NKfw8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
+*With patience the most tangled cord may be undone.*
+
+---
+*Want to help out? [See where you fit in!](/contributing)*