spences10 Advanced Prompting Patterns
Quick Start
Use these when Claude's first response feels safe/generic:
- Challenge - "Grill me on these changes"
- Verify - "Prove to me this works"
- Reset - "Scrap this and implement the elegant solution"
Pattern Categories
Challenge Prompts
Force Claude to critique rather than accept:
- "Grill me on these changes" - Get pushback on your approach
- "What would a 10x engineer do differently" - Surface better patterns
- "Find 3 ways this could fail" - Adversarial review
Verification Prompts
Demand evidence over assertions:
- "Prove to me this works" - Request test output, diffs
- "Show me the before/after" - Force concrete comparison
- "Walk through this line by line" - Prevent hand-waving
Reset Prompts
Break out of local optima:
- "Scrap this and implement the elegant solution" - Fresh approach
- "You're overcomplicating this" - Simplification pressure
- "What's the 80/20 version" - Cut scope ruthlessly
When to Use
| Situation | Prompt Pattern |
|---|---|
| Code review feels shallow | Challenge prompts |
| Implementation seems fragile | Verification prompts |
| Solution feels hacky | Reset prompts |
| Claude is agreeing too readily | "Push back on this" |
Anti-Patterns
- Don't use reset prompts mid-implementation (waste tokens)
- Challenge prompts need context (share the code first)
- Verification prompts pointless for trivial changes
References
- challenge-prompts.md - Critique and adversarial review
- verification-prompts.md - Evidence and proof patterns
- reset-prompts.md - Fresh starts and simplification