The single biggest quality improvement in my AI output came from changing one thing: I stopped writing prompts and started writing specs. Here is the format that works.
What is the difference between a spec and a prompt?
A prompt asks the AI to figure out what to build. A spec tells the AI exactly what to build. A prompt is ‘create a user dashboard.’ A spec is ‘create a /dashboard page with a table of recent orders from the orders table, a summary card showing total spend, and a settings button that links to /settings. Use the existing layout from /profile.’ Specs produce 80% fewer bugs on first pass.
How do you write an effective spec?
Three parts. Context: what the project is and what existing patterns to follow. Requirement: exactly what to build, file by file. Constraints: what not to do. I keep a spec template in my project root called SPEC.md. Before any AI session, I write a 5-line spec. The AI generates better code from 5 lines of spec than from 5 paragraphs of prompt.
Leave a Reply