I Shipped One Messy Python Script. Here's the 10-Point Checklist That Got It There.

AI can generate a functional Python script in approximately ninety seconds. The script executes successfully, and the user proceeds to the next task.

However, the script often persists beyond its initial use. It may include a hard-coded Downloads path or a comment such as # edit before running!!. Subsequently, someone might duplicate it as script_v2_FINAL.py. Weeks later, a teammate may attempt to use the script with a slightly different CSV file, resulting in a raw traceback or, more problematically, the script silently producing an incomplete file and exiting with a success code.

That gap between "runs on my machine" and "I'd let someone else run this" — that distance is the actual engineering work. And AI almost never closes it for you, because you never asked. (That's an observation from watching a lot of generated coThis post provides a detailed analysis of a deliberately typical, disorganized script. I will identify each defect and demonstrate the necessary modifications to prepare it for distribution. By the conclusion, readers will have a ten-point checklist applicable to their own code, requiring only Python and pytest.on your own code today, with zero tools beyond Python and pytest.