Replit Agent issues
(Sorry, long post, I am super pissed!)
I have been super-focused on using Replit Agent in the past few days, to the point that I maxed out my allowance (Replit Core) like 3 times per day. I have observed two Red flag, monster of issues that I want to mention here:
IDIOCY: I created a simple dashboard, as I give it the Figma system design, I ask it to focus on the components and theme first and then build pages. Then later down the road (1 hour later), I notice elements are not according to style. I ask and I see that elements (think h1 to h4) are being given a custom style DESPITE being defined in globals.css. I ask it to clear everything and use styling. It does, but all styling disappears. I ask it to fix it, again, changes the style, to no avail, or manually restyles the elements which is LITEREALLY WHAT I TOLD IT NOT TO DO IN THE PROMPT. I literally tell it not to touch the code, and not to change the style, just make sure the style is properly applied but no results. Back and forth like a zillion times, I max out my limit on this one issue in two hours, nothing has changed. Since I was limited, I just went and checked the code myself. IT DIDN'T EVEN IMPORT THE CSS!!!! THE MAIN CSS IN THE MAIN FILE!!! I mean mistakes can happen, but I specifically asked it to check whether it is properly loaded and it did not check it. The basic AI found it out in like 20 seconds! and it was fixed. I am certain I could spend days on the agent prompt without results.
REPLIT INSTABILITY: This has happened TWICE! I started a new Repl. I work for like one hours, I have built something, I ask it to change something really small (the second time I literally asked nothing, just confirmed the changes were good!), then all of a sudden the app doesn't run, it gets stuck in a deadlock of some sort. Even the agent cannot fix it, it asks for my help! I mean you made the entire thing, how would I know what that secret is? Or what port is something running on? I tried everything. This is the important part: ROLLING BACK TO A KNOWN WORKING VERSION DOES NOT WORK EITHER. NONE OF THE VERSIONS WORK. Whatever the issue is, it is not in the code-base, but something outside it, on how repls are run maybe? Imagine making something for like an hour, then spending 6 hours, trying to figure out why it isn't even running anymore? I had to delete and remake the entire thing. Maybe downloading the file and uploading it into a new project works but I could not tolerate spending hours trying to make something work that I could remake in an hour.
So to wrap it up, BEWARE. If it struggles with finding a solution and goes back and forth between solutions, don't waste your time, either get your hands dirty in the debugging, or just restart a new Repl. I spent more than 20 hours and only 2-3 hours was effective.