I’ve been experimenting with Aider’s `--pair` mode as part of a mentorship program for a couple of junior developers on my team, and I wanted to share some early observations and hear about others’ experiences.
The idea was to use it as a guided, interactive tool during our pairing sessions, rather than just having them use Aider solo. We set it up so the junior dev drives, I observe and prompt, and we use the pair mode to generate suggestions, explain code, or draft tests. It’s been interesting—the mode’s tendency to ask clarifying questions and offer multiple options actually sparked some good conversations about design trade-offs. For example, when refactoring a module, it laid out a few different structuring approaches, which led us to discuss cohesion and coupling in a very concrete way.
That said, it’s not a silver bullet. I’ve had to step in a few times to correct a misleading suggestion or to steer it back from an overcomplicated solution. It works best when the mentor is already familiar with the codebase and can provide that real-world context that the AI might miss.
Has anyone else tried using Aider in a mentor/junior dynamic? I’m curious about:
- How you structured the sessions.
- Any pitfalls you ran into (e.g., juniors becoming too reliant on its suggestions).
- Whether you found it improved knowledge retention or just sped up the immediate task.
Also, if you have any tips on prompts or workflows that worked particularly well for teaching concepts, I’d love to hear them.
Keep it civil, keep it real.