# How Robert C. Martin actually uses coding agents

Clean Code author

**If you take one thing:** `uml-viewer`, colored by CRAP + mutation. instead of reading agent code, he drills through a live UML diagram of the system, colored by CRAP and mutation scores, and tells a companion agent what to change.

- **Agent:** Grok (cli) ([source, 2026-10-05](https://x.com/unclebobmartin/status/2107162434892959990))
- **Agent:** Codex (cli) ([source, 2026-10-05](https://x.com/unclebobmartin/status/2107226963458810345))
- **Model:** Grok ([source, 2026-09-18](https://x.com/unclebobmartin/status/2101018229976043885))
- **Review:** Does not read agent code: Codex reviews Grok's output, he inspects a UML diagram colored by CRAP and mutation scores ([source, 2026-10-01](https://x.com/unclebobmartin/status/2105647907705868659))
- **Harness:** A few agents on isolated tasks, prompted by hand to run crap, dry and mutate; no harness ([source, 2026-10-01](https://x.com/unclebobmartin/status/2105668991897448890))
- **Rules file:** .grok/rules/uml-viewer.md (Grok rules); AGENTS.md in older repos ([source, 2026-10-01](https://github.com/unclebob/uml-viewer/blob/0f54dd782525a49d7ba6ab1b7e2d6649a0a59078/.grok/rules/uml-viewer.md#L50))
- **Skills:** crap4clj, using-clj-mutate, speclj-structure-check, crap4go, using-mutate4go ([source, 2026-09-17](https://github.com/unclebob/crap4clj/blob/e90be2e7aa02c2ec5d6544e9cecddc6b73ad3e4d/SKILL.md#L2))

## In their words

> However, I just had grok build me a script editor.  It took it 30 minutes.

> I'm using codex to review the code that grok wrote.  Good results.

> It is eerie just how good @grok is now.  I've stopped using any other model for the time being.

> People seem shocked that the author of Clean Code doesn't read code anymore.

> I'm back to working the way I did in March.  A few agents open doing isolated tasks.  Manually prompting them to do crap, dry, and mutate.  No harness.


Archetype (our label): Toolsmith. Newest source: 2026-10-05.
Card: https://www.prehistoriq.com/stacks/unclebob/ · Data: https://github.com/prehistoriq/stacks/blob/main/data/stacks/unclebob.json