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Prompting Green Goods

Prompt by work stage, not by internal tool names.

Start with one of four verbs:

  • /plan to shape work
  • /debug to find root cause
  • /review to judge a diff
  • /status --resume to pick work back up

Default Shape​

[verb]
Goal:
Scope:
Constraints:
Watch for:
Done when:

What each line does:

  • Goal — the outcome you want
  • Scope — the boundary the agent should stay inside
  • Constraints — the repo rules or tradeoffs that matter here
  • Watch for — the judgment-heavy areas where you want extra care
  • Done when — what a good result looks like

If you keep only three lines, keep these:

  • Goal
  • Scope
  • Done when

Good Defaults​

Ask for:

  • the smallest sensible package boundary
  • existing repo patterns over new abstractions
  • human judgment points surfaced early
  • narrow validation, not a broad scan
  • clear separation between what is proven and what is inferred

Examples​

/plan
Goal: Add gardener invite flow
Scope: Keep it inside shared + client if possible
Constraints: avoid new abstractions unless they remove real complexity
Watch for: shared API changes, permissions
Done when: small implementation plan with clear judgment points
/debug
Goal: Find why wallet reconnect fails
Scope: reproduce first, then isolate root cause
Constraints: no speculative fixes
Watch for: auth state, retries, swallowed errors
Done when: root cause is proven and fix options are ranked by confidence
/review
Goal: Review this branch
Scope: changed files only
Constraints: high-confidence findings only
Watch for: hooks boundary, migrations, brittle fallback logic
Done when: must-fix items and human call-outs are clearly separated
/status --resume
Goal: Reorient me on this branch
Done when: blockers and next 3 moves are clear

Avoid This​

Avoid prompts like:

  • "run architecture, then principles, then audit"
  • "review the whole repo"
  • "fix everything"

Those push the agent toward broad scans and weaker judgment. Start with the stage of work, define the scope, and say what done looks like.

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Next best action

See how the repo's context layers help concise prompts stay accurate.

Context Engineering