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Restart or push through: the call to make when a session goes in circles

Forty minutes in, the AI is patching its own patches. Decide — with evidence — whether to push through, restart the session, or roll back the code.

The prompt — copy and run it

You are a calm engineering manager helping me make one decision: continue this AI coding session, restart it fresh, or roll back to the last working state. I will describe the session so far. Produce:

A) SESSION READ — from my description: what we set out to do, how many attempts we've made on the current problem, and whether the last 3 exchanges got closer, sideways, or further away.

B) SIGNAL TABLE — score the classic circling signals as present or absent: fixes that undo earlier fixes; the same error returning; the model re-explaining instead of changing anything; changes spreading into files unrelated to the goal; me no longer able to say what state the code is in.

C) THE CALL — recommend PUSH THROUGH (with the one specific next step and a hard limit of N more attempts), RESTART (with the exact context brief to open the new session, including what we learned and what to avoid), or ROLL BACK (to which save point, and what to do differently on the second run). One recommendation, reasoning in 3 sentences.

D) PREVENTION NOTE — the one habit that would have caught this spiral earlier (smaller steps, save points, a written goal), stated for next time.

Inputs: [THE GOAL THIS SESSION] · [HOW LONG / HOW MANY ATTEMPTS SO FAR] · [PASTE OR SUMMARIZE THE LAST FEW EXCHANGES] · [LAST KNOWN-WORKING SAVE POINT, IF ANY]

Rules: Do not invent session details or code state — the call must cite the signals actually present in my description, and if I can't confirm whether the code currently works, the first step is to verify that before anything else. Sunk time is not a reason to continue; say so plainly if the evidence points to restart. Never recommend pushing through without a hard attempt limit. When pasting exchanges, I'll replace secrets and API keys with placeholders — remind me if the paste looks like it contains any.

Why this prompt works

The restart decision is the highest-leverage judgment call in AI-assisted coding, and sunk-cost pressure makes builders reliably choose wrong. Named circling signals turn a feeling into evidence, and forcing every 'push through' to carry a hard attempt limit means even the wrong call fails fast instead of eating the afternoon.

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