Project Mode
How to practice manual coding in your own projects
Turn real repository work into right-sized manual coding practice without uploading your code or asking your coding agent to invent busywork.
6 min read · Updated August 2026
Reserve useful work instead of inventing exercises
Your coding agent already understands the repository and the work in front of it. A training system should provide the skill target; the local agent should propose one to three genuine tasks that the project already needs.
If none fit the target, reject them and use a tailored Gym task instead. Do not add meaningless functions just to create practice.
Keep repository source in the development environment
The task can be negotiated through bounded metadata: language, skill, difficulty, estimated time, test capability, and an opaque scope identifier. The developer completes the task in the IDE.
Completion evidence can be similarly bounded: test counts, outcome, duration, hashes, and assistance usage. Raw source, diffs, prompts, transcripts, command output, and secrets do not need to leave the local environment.
Make the task match the training plan
- ManualMode supplies a specific skill target and time budget.
- The local coding agent proposes up to three real tasks.
- ManualMode reserves the best fit or requests one bounded retry.
- You implement it manually in your IDE.
- Verified evidence updates the next recommendation.
Use browser drills as fallback, not the whole product
Repository work will not always contain a safe, right-sized task for the skill you need today. Browser Gym reps provide controlled coverage for those gaps and calibrate the initial profile.
The two sources serve one plan: real work when it fits, targeted drills when it does not.
Start with evidence