What I'm tacking onto my prompts right now

Here are some magic words you can append to any prompt:

"Tell me if I misunderstood anything or if you see an error. Ask clarifying questions."

I've been using this especially when starting a new coding-agent session, implementing some complex feature. Because my first prompt will often be a sprawling spec-driven-development style document, that attempts to one-shot the entire task.

And while I do usually need some follow-up prompts to get it just right...

I find the entire process goes much better if I ask the agent to point out:

1. Where my assumptions or facts are wrong

2. Where I am just flat-out confused about what I'm doing

3. Critical information I left out of the prompt

4. Where I have made embarrassing face-palm errors in how I'm approaching the whole thing

It's better to catch all that right at the start, before the coding agent writes a single byte.

Because that is when it is easiest to fix. After all, a milligram of planning is worth a kilogram of cure, as Ben Franklin said. (Or would have said, had he not passed away before the metric system was invented.)

That's why these magic words are so life-enhancing, when you append them to a complex prompt. You don't need them for simple prompts, of course. But it'll save you much time, grief and cortisol with the big ones.

Try it out today, or the next time you write a big hairy coding-agent prompt.

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