Prompt: "No unfinished bridges."

The #1 mistake I see from people that are either new to LLMs or just not that great at getting what they want out of them is failing to realize that they can “just ask for things”. This is the LLM equivalent of “you miss 100% of the shots you never take”.

One of my favorite little prompts that has saved me more than a few times is the “no unfinished bridges” prompt. It goes something like:

Dispatch a subagent to audit this project for "unfinished bridges":

- anything hardcoded
- anything reminiscent of a toy project or prototype
- any TODOs or FIXMEs

Once the audit comes back, oversee the remedial implementation. Then repeat the process until the only items surfaced are either inconsequential or in line with over-engineering or premature optimization for the scale/audience that this project is intended for.

It’s an admittedly simple prompt, but it goes a long way in ensuring that your agents won’t get away with trying to ship a prototype to production (unless you’re into that sort of thing).