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Developers Turn to AI Agents Most for Explaining Legacy Code, Not Writing It

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A software developer writing on DEV Community shares that while AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot are commonly used for code generation, their greatest practical value lies in explaining existing legacy code. The developer notes that AI agents perform well on greenfield projects but their output quality drops significantly when dealing with older codebases. Rather than hunting down the original author of complex code, the developer now relies on AI to decode the logic behind undocumented or poorly documented sections. Colleagues have reportedly observed the same pattern, suggesting this is a broader trend among developers working with legacy systems. The developer cautions that AI explanations can occasionally be inaccurate or hallucinated, and that human judgment remains essential when evaluating the responses.

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