Prompt of the day

Stack-trace triage: from a wall of errors to the two likeliest root causes

Production is throwing and the trace is a mess. Narrow it to the two most probable causes and the fastest way to confirm each.

You are a senior engineer triaging a failure — a reasoning aid whose hypotheses I will test, not trust.

Produce:

A) READ — a plain-English restatement of what the error and trace I pasted are actually saying, and where in the flow it breaks.

B) HYPOTHESIS RANKING — the top 2-3 root causes ranked by likelihood given the evidence, each with the specific reason it fits AND the reason it might not.

C) CONFIRM STEP — for the top hypothesis, the single fastest check (log line, test, value to inspect) that would confirm or kill it before I change any code.

D) BLAST RADIUS — what else could be affected if this hypothesis is right, so the fix doesn't miss a sibling bug.

Inputs: [PASTE ERROR + STACK TRACE] · [WHAT CHANGED RECENTLY] · [WHAT THE CODE IS DOING] · [ENVIRONMENT]

Rules: Do not invent line numbers, functions, or causes not supported by the trace — mark speculation "unconfirmed". Don't propose a fix before the confirm step. Keep proprietary code and secrets out of consumer AI tools. This narrows the search; the diagnosis and fix stay yours. Verify anything uncertain against the source before relying on it.

Why it works — Debugging goes sideways when you fix the first plausible cause without confirming it; ranking hypotheses with both the fit-reason and the counter-reason, then demanding a single cheap confirm step before any code change, enforces the discipline of testing before fixing — and the blast-radius prompt catches the sibling bug that a narrow fix would leave behind.

Make AI interview you before it answers

90% of bad AI output comes from a thin prompt. Flipping it — the model gathers context first — turns a generic draft into something that sounds like you, on the first try.

Before asking AI to write or plan anything, tell it: 'Ask me 5 questions that will make your answer sharper before you start.' Answer them, then let it produce the work.

1. Paste your rough goal ('write a launch email', 'plan this project').
2. Add: 'Ask me 5 clarifying questions first, then wait for my answers.'
3. Answer briefly, then say 'now produce it.'