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Keep Coding-Model Changes in Scope: Three Path Sets and a Four-Leaf Check

A proposed path-level workflow uses read, write, and freeze sets to bound coding-model sessions, with a four-leaf preflight and a final diff check.
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To keep a coding model’s changes inside an agreed repository boundary, declare three path sets before the first prompt, then compare the final changed-path list with the declared write set. In this proposed workflow, a change outside that set fails the session—even if tests pass. Taylor Lin, author of the DEV Community article, puts the boundary plainly: “If a path is in no set, it is out of scope.”

What the three sets mean

These are path-level rules for one coding session, not special model capabilities. Record them somewhere the model cannot edit, such as a review contract maintained outside its writable paths.

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  • Read set: Paths the model may be shown, such as source files, fixtures, and error logs. Keep secrets out of it.
  • Write set: Paths the model may modify. Keep it small enough that a reviewer can explain every file in one sitting.
  • Freeze set: Paths the model may read but must not modify. The proposal includes scoring tests, golden fixtures, lockfiles, migration history, and policy-as-code as examples.

A write-set leak is any generated diff that touches a path outside the write set. A self-scoring patch is a particularly risky freeze-set leak: for example, weakening a cart assertion so a faulty implementation passes. The workflow treats either as a failed session rather than accepting a passing test result as an excuse.

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Run the four-leaf preflight in order

At each question, stop at the first failed check. The leaves are proposed decision points, not results from a benchmark.

1. Are all three sets declared outside model control? If not, stop at Leaf A.

For a ticket to apply a 10% regional cart discount without allowing a negative total, create the contract before prompting. One suggested location is review/session_sets.json. Include the contract file itself in the freeze set so the model cannot silently change the boundary.

{
  "read": ["src/cart.py", "tests/test_cart.py"],
  "write": ["src/cart.py"],
  "freeze": ["tests/test_cart.py", "review/session_sets.json"],
  "max_write_files": 8
}

Do not generate code yet. The point of this leaf is to establish the rules before the model sees the task.

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2. Are scoring tests frozen and disjoint from the write set? If not, stop at Leaf B.

Keep tests/test_cart.py in freeze while leaving src/cart.py as the implementation write path. The illustrative tests can check that a 200 cart total becomes 180 after the discount and that the result never falls below zero. Run pytest -q tests/test_cart.py once before generation to establish the test instrument’s state; do not let the session edit the tests to make the result easier to obtain.

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3. Is the write set reviewable? If not, stop at Leaf C.

The proposal uses eight files as a working cap recorded before the prompt. It is an author-specific default, not a universal limit, and it can reject a legitimate refactor. Choose an appropriate cap in the contract before seeing the diff. If the task needs too many writable paths, split it: handle the cart-only change in one bounded session, then address a pricing-file change in a separate session with a new contract.

4. Does the final changed-path list stay inside the write set? If yes, Leaf D.

After the preflight passes, generate once and inspect the resulting paths. The proposed checker can be run with python review/check_write_set.py; its Git comparison is equivalent to examining git diff --name-only HEAD. A path outside the declared write set is a leak. For the cart implementation, inspect the focused change with git diff --stat -- src/cart.py.

What the checker can—and cannot—establish

The suggested Python checker does not call a model. As described, it validates that each set is a list, stops if a set is empty, rejects overlap between write and freeze, looks for a scoring test in freeze, checks the write-set size against the configured cap, and compares changed names against the write set.

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The command git diff --name-only HEAD does not list untracked files. A newly created path can therefore evade that comparison until it is staged; for a new file intended for commit, git add -N path/to/file makes it visible to the diff without fully staging its contents. Review the complete repository status as well as the checker output.

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A clean path check establishes only that the listed changes stay within the declared paths. It cannot prove that the discount formula is correct, that edge cases are handled, or that an allowed file was not changed in a harmful way. Frozen tests still matter, and code review remains necessary.

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When this workflow is useful

Use the three sets when a coding task has files that should be visible but protected—especially evaluation tests, fixtures, migrations, or policy rules—and when you want an explicit path-level acceptance check after generation. The method is intentionally narrow: it sets boundaries and detects changed-path violations; it does not compare vendors, enforce semantic correctness, or guarantee that every file read by a model is safe to disclose.

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