
5 Essential Rules for Surviving (and Thriving) in Google Antigravity
1. Lay Down the Law Immediately
When you open a blank folder or start a new project, your very first prompt shouldn't be about building features. It should be about setting strict ground rules. You want to establish a professional standard from the very first token.
Give your agents clear instructions to enforce Security by Design. If you are building out web services, explicitly instruct the agent to adhere to the OWASP Top 10 and the OWASP API Security Top 10 from the jump. Mandate DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principles, clean maintainability, and thorough documentation. Furthermore, instruct the agent to script and automate as much boilerplate as possible when standing up new infrastructure or deployments. Setting these guardrails early ensures your digital assistant stays focused, consistent, and strictly aligned with your project's architectural standards from day one.
2. Understand and Protect Your Quotas
Agent-driven development burns through tokens fast. You can track your usage by navigating to Preferences -> Antigravity Settings -> Models.
It is vital to understand how the limits work: Antigravity uses a dual-quota system. You have a short-term 5-hour sprint limit, and a larger weekly baseline limit. If your quota says it won't reset for 7 days, it means you've completely exhausted your weekly pool. Upgrading to the AI Pro subscription provides a significantly larger 5-hour capacity and a massive weekly pool, but careless prompt engineering can still lock a Pro user out for days. Treat your quota like a finite budget.
3. Be a Model Matchmaker
To maximize your quota and get the best results, you need to route specific tasks to the models best equipped to handle them. Do not use your heaviest models for trivial tasks.
| Task Category | Recommended Model | Why it Works |
|---|---|---|
| Planning & Architecture | Claude Sonnet 4.6 / Opus 4.6 | Exceptional at deep thinking, structuring complex multi-file projects, and laying out clear roadmaps. |
| UI, UX & Quick Edits | Gemini 3 Flash | Incredibly fast and lightweight. Perfect for visual tweaks, CSS adjustments, or simple frontend logic. |
| Backend Logic & Security | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Unmatched for complex engine logic, deep auditing, and heavy backend lifting. |
4. Don't Get Lazy with the Easy Stuff
It is incredibly tempting to sit back and tell your agent to write the code, compile the app, run the build, and execute the test suite. Don't do this. Allowing the agent to run terminal commands for compiling and testing burns through your quota at lightning speed, especially if it hits an error and tries to continuously debug itself. Instruct your agents to focus strictly on building and writing the code. Take the few seconds to handle the compiling, building, and testing manually. Your weekly quota will thank you.
5. Never Turn On "Always Proceed"
Antigravity will frequently pause and prompt you for permission to execute terminal commands or modify files. It might seem convenient to flip the agent settings to "Always Proceed" (Turbo mode) to avoid the constant interruptions.
This is highly dangerous. If an agent gets caught in an execution loop, it can start hallucinating wildly, changing code in random places, breaking your architecture, and completely draining your weekly quota in a matter of minutes. Keep the execution permissions on the "Agent-Assisted" or "Review" presets.
The Two-Strike Rule: If an agent attempts to fix the exact same error twice and fails, stop the execution immediately. Review the code yourself, figure out the root cause, and provide the agent with a fresh, highly specific prompt to guide it out of the loop.
Bonus Tip: Verify with Artifacts, Not Logs
When an agent finishes a large task, don't waste time scrolling through thousands of lines of raw tool calls to see what it did. Antigravity agents generate "Artifacts"—tangible deliverables like structured implementation plans, standardized code diffs, and UI screenshots. Review these artifacts first. If something looks wrong, you can leave a comment directly on the artifact, and the agent will incorporate your feedback seamlessly.
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