A good coding prompt isn't a magic trick. It's a checklist you don't have to remember, run by something that never gets bored.
Keep a negative list
Write down what you never want as explicitly as what you do. The exclusions often do more work than the instructions.
- Ask for three angles, then cut to the one worth shipping
- Have the model flag what it could not cover
- Name the audience and the single goal before you generate
Generate options, not answers
Lock the parts that never change and leave one slot for the variable. Now every run shares a family resemblance instead of starting from scratch.
- Ask for three angles, then cut to the one worth shipping
- Compare two outputs instead of trusting one
- Save the prompt that worked so the next person reuses it
Treat the first output as a draft, not a verdict. The prompt does the typing; you keep the judgment about what ships.