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Bad vs. good openers

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Bad vs. good openers

A useful names the file, the symptom, the repro, and the desired action. Vague prompts get vague results. The five-part shape gives Claude what it needs on the first try.

beginner

Claude doesn’t have your project in its head until you point at it. Cold-start get cold-start answers.

The five-part shape of an opener that gives Claude what it needs:

  1. Location — the file, folder, page, or document involved
  2. Symptom — what’s currently happening
  3. Repro — how to make the symptom happen (URL, test name, user step)
  4. Desired — what should happen instead
  5. Constraint (optional) — anything that’s locked in (don’t break X, must use Y)

Bad: “Fix the dashboard.”

Good: “In src/pages/dashboard.tsx, the empty-state placeholder is overlapping the chart legend. Repro: log in as empty@example.com and open /dashboard. I want the placeholder centred and the legend hidden when there’s no data.”

Notice: the good version is one short paragraph, not a wall of text. Specificity beats length.

When the prompt is more open than a bug fix — exploring a new area, planning a refactor — front-load the grounding with the “Read X. Then ask Y” pattern:

Read src/services/billing.ts and src/routes/billing.ts. Then tell me where invoice totals are computed and whether there’s a single source of truth.

Two sentences. First sets context, second asks the question. Stops Claude from guessing what file you meant.

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Brief Claude like a colleague (the 5-line template)

A one-line gets one-line-quality work. Brief Claude with Role + Goal + Task + Constraints + Context — the same shape you'd hand a colleague who's helping with the task.

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