Quick fixes

Small pages for the moment something is not working: the fix first, the explanation after.

Each pattern starts from a situation — "you are asking for a better version for the third time" — and gives the fix immediately. The full guides behind each one are linked when you want more.

Filter the quick fixes

Asking and phrasing

AI gives me generic answers
Say what you actually want Shared methods
I say "better" and it keeps guessing wrong
Tell it what "better" means Shared methods
It answered a different situation than mine
It only knows what you paste Shared methods
The part I cared about got two sentences
One request, five tasks Shared methods
I'm on the fourth rewrite and it's not improving
Make the next rewrite more useful Shared methods
My prompt has become enormous
More context is not better context Shared methods
I took the first suggestion and regret it
Ask for three options, not one answer Shared methods
AI agrees with everything I say
Make it argue the other side Shared methods
It answers before it knows my situation
Let it interview you first Shared methods
It can't hit the tone I mean
Show one example instead of three adjectives Shared methods
It forgot everything from yesterday
It does not remember your last chat Shared methods

Checking before relying

The answer looks right but I'm not sure it's true
Check it before you act on it Shared methods
Its confident info turned out to be outdated
For current facts, make it search Shared methods
I'm about to act on this, and it matters
Raise the checking with the stakes Shared methods
It assumed things about me that are wrong
Ask what it assumed Shared methods
I almost sent something I hadn't read
You are about to use something you have not read Shared methods
Tests pass but the work smells wrong
The agent passed the check by changing the check Shared methods
I'm about to forward AI output I haven't checked
Don't forward what you haven't read Shared methods

Ways of working

I'm copying data around by hand, again
You are doing work it could structure Shared methods
I retype the same background in every chat
Stop re-explaining your project Shared methods
This chat keeps repeating old mistakes
This conversation is past its best Shared methods
I'm the courier between AI and my apps
You are the copy-paste middleware Shared methods
My plan file no longer matches the code
The plan file stopped being true Shared methods

Working with agents

My agent review panel agrees with itself
Add a critic, not a committee Shared methods
My agents produce more than I can read
Don't fan out past your review capacity Shared methods

The right tool

I'm describing things it could just read
Chat is not always the right tool Shared methods
I summarised a document instead of showing it
Attach the file you are describing Shared methods
I typed "it doesn't work" instead of the error
Paste the exact error, not your summary of it Shared methods
It did the maths in prose and I believed it
Don't do arithmetic in prose Shared methods

Quota and cost

My quota vanishes on trivial questions
The big model is not for everything Shared methods
The limit keeps interrupting me mid-task
Stop hitting the limit mid-task Shared methods
My session got huge and sluggish
The context you never trim Shared methods

Data and privacy

I nearly pasted a password into the chat
That paste contains a secret Shared methods
I'm pasting things about other people
That data belongs to someone else Shared methods

The learning path behind them

Nobody needs prompting theory on day one. The patterns build on each other, roughly in this order:

Say what you wantvague-request
Give the contextmissing-context
Name the quality barundefined-quality
Show an exampleno-example-given
Ask for options and critiquefirst-answer-taken
Check before relyingtrusting-without-checking
Turn repetition into setuprepeating-project-context

For tools and integrations, the machine-readable list lives at /patterns.json.