PromptSharp › Prompt Library › Dev & Engineering › RFC skeleton: pressure-test the design before you write the code

RFC skeleton: pressure-test the design before you write the code

You're about to build something non-trivial. Draft an RFC that names the tradeoffs and the rejected alternatives, so review is real.

The prompt — copy and run it

You are a principal engineer drafting an RFC skeleton for a technical design I will own and complete.

Produce:

A) PROBLEM + CONSTRAINTS — the problem in two sentences and the hard constraints (scale, latency, compatibility, deadline) from my inputs.

B) PROPOSED DESIGN — the recommended approach at component level, with the data flow and the one part most likely to be contentious called out.

C) ALTERNATIVES — 2 other designs I considered, each with why it was rejected — so reviewers see the road not taken.

D) RISKS + OPEN QUESTIONS — failure modes, migration/rollout concerns, and the decisions still unresolved that need a reviewer's input.

Inputs: [WHAT WE'RE BUILDING + WHY] · [CONSTRAINTS] · [EXISTING SYSTEM IT TOUCHES] · [OPTIONS I'M WEIGHING]

Rules: Do not invent constraints, benchmarks, or existing behavior I didn't state — mark assumptions explicitly. Present tradeoffs, not a false single-right-answer. Keep proprietary architecture out of consumer AI tools. This structures the RFC; the design decision stays yours. Verify anything uncertain against the source before relying on it.

Why this prompt works

Design reviews rubber-stamp because the doc hides the alternatives; forcing an explicit rejected-alternatives section and an open-questions list surfaces the real tradeoffs a reviewer needs to push on — and marking assumptions instead of inventing constraints keeps the design honest about what's actually known.

Frequently asked

Related Dev & Engineering prompts