An Intake Card for Free AI Coding Sessions

Description and use

Introducing an intake card for free AI coding sessions reduces failures caused by unclear scope, ownership, and handoffs, ensuring reproducibility and token budget visibility.

Problem

Free AI bench failures are often caused by intake failures such as missing scope, owner, or handoff, leading to rework.

Outcome

Implementing the intake card and script reduces AI bench failures by ensuring scope clarity, role assignment, reproducible baselines, and token budget visibility.

Workflow

• Create a clean tree and branch
• Create the run card before touching code
• Record the baseline test output
• Run the session in the free server sandbox
• Reviewer reproduces the acceptance command and records results
• Close or expire the card

Evidence

Most free AI bench failures are intake failures.

Source

The model is rarely the first problem. Missing scope, missing owner, and missing handoff cause the rework.

Source

A short intake card fixes more than another model trial.

Source

The SOP still applies if the team uses another bench. The artifact is portable.

Source

The script captures the commit before the session starts. That single line saves hours later.

Source

The free server option changes the setup cost, not the review standard.

Source