Original Reddit post

I like to be very direct with claude code with structured prompts. But I think I might be going a bit overboard. I use chatgpt to generate prompts for claude to implement which overall has been working great for my relatively simple code base. I have claude keep running docs of everything it does for each slice. The last step of my workflow after I have reviewed the code and approved I mark that slice as approved in the docs. Below is a long example of a prompt I have been using. It takes 5 minutes at least and probably burns a ton of tokens. But just today I started using the short prompt, it ends up achieving the exact same thing and takes 15 seconds. In the long run maybe the long prompt is less likely to glitch and do something weird but is it worth it? What kind of prompts do you send to CC? short prompt: mark SPECIALORDERS-CREATE-FLOW-CUSTOMER-FIRST-CONTRACT-001 as approved long prompt: Act as Claude Code performing an approval-recording docs update only. Context: Principal Engineer reviewed: SPECIALORDERS-CREATE-FLOW-CUSTOMER-FIRST-CONTRACT-001 Principal Review verdict: READY TO PROCEED Task: Record this Principal Review approval in the repo’s durable docs. Strict scope:

  • Do not change runtime code.
  • Do not change templates.
  • Do not change tests.
  • Do not change URLs.
  • Do not change views.
  • Do not change services.
  • Do not change models.
  • Do not create migrations.
  • Do not start the next slice.
  • Do not add implementation details to slice_roadmap.md.
  • Do not bloat executive_summary.md / executive_handoff.md.
  • Do not mark any future slice as implemented. Required docs to update:
  • slice_roadmap.md
  • docs/archive/slices/SPECIALORDERS-CREATE-FLOW-CUSTOMER-FIRST-CONTRACT-001.md Durable-doc discipline:
  • slice_roadmap.md must remain concise.
  • Update only the status/verdict for SPECIALORDERS-CREATE-FLOW-CUSTOMER-FIRST-CONTRACT-001.
  • The entry may say APPROVED / READY TO PROCEED with the Principal Review date.
  • Leave detailed design content in the archive doc.
  • The archive doc may record the Principal Review verdict.
  • executive_summary.md / executive_handoff.md should not be updated unless it already has an incorrect status for this slice.
  • docs/planning/future_slice_backlog.md should not be updated unless it already has an incorrect status for this slice. Completion report: Return a concise report with:
  • files changed
  • exact status recorded
  • confirmation that no runtime files changed
  • confirmation that the next slice was not started No subagent self-review is required for this approval-recording-only task unless repo workflow convention explicitly requires it. submitted by /u/kedanki

Originally posted by u/kedanki on r/ClaudeCode