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AtomicReps
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Retrieval practice for engineers

Explain the code you ship, from memory.

Even the parts your AI wrote.

As your coding agent finishes tasks, it asks you questions on the libraries and concepts it just used, and the ones you miss are asked again later.

One question, your topic

The space between paragraphs in the article view is half what the design says. Fix it.

⏺ Read(src/article/prose.css)

⎿ Read 40 lines

⏺ Grep(pattern: "margin", path: src/article)

⎿ 4 matches

⏺ Update(src/article/prose.css)

⎿ Updated 1 file, +2 -2

⏺ Fixed it in src/article/prose.css. Want me to check the other text styles for the same spacing?

Atomic Reps · FrontendREP 01

Two stacked paragraphs each declare margin: 24px 0. What is the vertical gap between them?

Wherever you work

and 7 more
After you answer

Answer from memory.
What you miss is asked again.

One review schedule across your coding agent, the browser and Slack.

  1. One question16 days
    Same question, wider gaps
    01/03

    Practice what you miss

    A question you miss is asked again. Each time you get it right, the wait before it is asked again is longer.

  2. Due for reviewtoday
    Claude CodeMissedWhy does the stale closure keep the old count?
    Slack DMDueWhat does a partial index skip?
    BrowserDueWhen does an optimistic update roll back?
    02/03

    See what is due

    Every answer, from the agent, the browser or Slack, is saved in one record on the web. Open it to see what is due today.

  3. atomicreps pace
    daily cap3 a day
    minimum gap2 hours
    coding agenton
    03/03

    Set the pace

    Set a daily cap and a minimum gap between questions in your coding agent, or turn them off.

npx atomicreps

Every question is written in advance. Report a wrong one and it gets fixed.

How it works in your coding agent
Where reps fit

The agent can do the work.
You still need the practice.

Working a task out yourself is practice. An agent now does more of that work for you.

Where you learn

Where Atomic Reps
comes in

The same task on two timelines. Without an agent, you learn something at each step: reading the code, working out an approach, writing and debugging, refactoring and passing review, and you ship late. With an agent, you brief it, it works through the middle steps where you never see them, you review the pull request and ship much sooner. Atomic Reps comes in when the agent finishes, and two of the steps the agent worked through become ones where you learn.
Research: what developers learned with and without AI

Why we prioritize answering

A week later, students who tested themselves recalled more than students who reread.

In one lab experiment, students who reread a passage scored higher five minutes later. Students who had to recall it from memory scored higher two days and a week later.

Most students predicted wrong

75%

of students predicted the other study method would do as well or better. Answering from memory gave 84% of them the higher test score.

Karpicke & Blunt 2011 · Science · vs concept mapping →
  • Answered from memory
  • Reread it

% of the passage they could still recall

Roediger and Karpicke 2006, Experiment 1. Percentage of passage content recalled, group averages.
Test delayRereadAnswered from memory
5 minutes81%75%
2 days54%68%
1 week42%56%

Scores a week after answering are higher than two days after rereading

Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · Experiment 1 · N=120 · prose recall · no feedback →

The studies measured passages. We built on them because of the code you merged last week and can't explain today.

  • Not one lucky study

    222 classroom studies point the same way. Across 48,478 students, groups that were quizzed outscored groups that reread.

  • Where it stops

    Compared with not revisiting the material at all, retrieval practice shows its largest advantage. Compared with explaining the material to yourself, the advantage nearly disappears. Recalling an answer produces higher scores than passive review. Retrieval practice has not been shown to outscore every method.

  • What nobody has measured

    No one has run the trial on programming skill. These studies shaped our design. They do not measure Atomic Reps.

We print the caveats because they do not weaken the case for the practice · Read every study and caveat →

Atomic Teams

You decide what each team gets asked, inside Slack.

Teams · 10 teams · 52 membersCreate Team

Platform

8 members6 of 9 topics in rotation
BackendDevOpsData
TemplateBackend Platform
Foundation 2/2 onthe non-negotiables for these domains
  • Git11 topicsT3
  • Testing strategies12 topicsT3
Recommended 4/4 onthe defaults for these domains
  • API design12 topicsT4
  • Databases12 topicsT4
  • Kubernetes8 topicsT4
  • Observability8 topicsT4
Explore 0/3 onopt-in stretches
  • Caching6 topics–
  • Message queues6 topics–
  • Accessibility10 topics–

Reps go to the team, or to one person you pick. You set what gets practiced, never who gets watched.

Support·Setup guide·Docs
PlanTeamSlackAcme CorpDelivery2 channels · healthyMembers52
  • Topics you pick
  • Your team remembers the hard parts
  • Free for one channel
Add to SlackEverything the Slack app does
Atomic Learn

Courses for the parts you keep looking up.

The curriculum you never got.

Other platforms teach a subject from the beginning. These courses cover only the parts you rarely use and half-remember: generics, the event loop, the cascade, the TLS handshake.

Frontend · TypeScript

TypeScript: What the Type System Checks

That colleague keeps suggesting things you don't understand.

6 levels · 27 lessons
  1. IType FoundationsFree
  2. IIany, unknown & NarrowingPro
  3. IIIGenericsSample
  4. IVType TransformationSample
  5. VModules & EmitPro
  6. VIDeclaration Files & TypeScript 7 ConfigPro
Start lesson one, no signup All 27 lessons
Level IIIGenerics that earn the brackets1/14

Generics · types take arguments

A generic is not a mysterious new kind of type. It is a type that takes arguments, the way a function takes arguments, and like functions, applications nest: a Box can hold another Box.

type Box<T> = { value: T };
type Pair<T> = Box<Box<T>>;

type B = Pair<number>["value"]["value"];

What is the type of B?

Sample certificate

Earn a course certificate

Tricky to get right first time. Retry as often as you like, and your certificate grade only ever goes up. Pass every lesson and the certificate is yours to share, on LinkedIn or anywhere else.

With Pro
  • Every level of every course
  • Graded certificates
  • Lessons on the trickiest parts, the ones most people get wrong
Explore every course
Atomic Games

Team building with nothing to prepare. You press start.

Three games, and nothing for you to plan. The questions are already written and kept current: you pick a topic, send one link, and everyone joins.

For the person running the team

Your engineers argue about code for twenty minutes, and the new hire has met everyone. You showed up and pressed start.

Nothing to write
Ours, and re-checked as new versions ship. Never a deck you build the night before.
One link
Everyone joins from their own screen. Nobody installs anything.
On the calendar
Schedule a round once per channel, and it is posted there each time.
Every team you run
Three squads cost you the same minute as one.
Host a round A link to share · Free · No login
Three games
In Slack
Every game
AtomicReps

Practice where you already work

A team that still understands what it ships. The questions are sent to them where they already work, and questions they miss are asked again.

No account. No card.

For the skeptic

See the evidence

The studies behind the doubt, and the science that answers it.

For the believer

See what's free

The daily question, hosted games, the first level of every course.