Five Proof Gates That Separate an AI Demo from a Shippable MVP

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AI coding agents can rapidly generate working software, but speed alone does not confirm that a product is ready to ship. The author proposes five 'proof gates' — verifiable conditions that must be met before any product claim is considered validated. These gates cover areas such as defining a single core user loop, controlling scope with a 'Not Today' list, and rigorously testing data persistence through full backup-and-restore round trips. A key warning is that common errors like silently returning empty arrays on parse failures can cause agents to overwrite valid user data. The framework is designed to ensure that AI-assisted development produces genuinely reliable software, not just convincing demonstrations.

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