First week with a coding model
What to read, in order, if you have just started using a model for real work on a codebase. Four entries, about an hour.
- GuideUniversal
Giving a model a role and constraints
How naming the audience, the format and the exclusions turns unpredictable answers into repeatable ones.
Start here. Everything else assumes this.
- PromptUniversal
Strict code review of a diff
A review prompt that reports only what would break in production, gives the smallest fix for each finding, and is allowed to say the diff is fine.
The prompt that gets used most on day one.
- WorkflowUniversal
Find dead code across a repository
A four-step pass that maps the repo, lists exported symbols, checks each one for real callers and produces a deletion list you can actually act on…
Once single prompts feel routine, this is the next step.
Tested on Claude Sonnet · May 2026
- Before and afterUniversal
Asking for a summary
The same document, the same model. The weak version returns the article rearranged; the strong one returns something you can act on, because it says…
Read the two versions side by side. It is the whole idea in one page.
Tested on Claude Sonnet · May 2026