Why Prompting Is Becoming Spec Writing
half the brief is what NOT to touch
When I give a job to an apprentice, I don’t say “fix the car.” I say: this vehicle, this fault, this is what the customer reported, these are the parts we have, don’t touch the airbag system, come get me before you order anything over fifty quid.
That’s a spec. And it’s exactly what working prompts for tool-using agents have turned into.
The shift nobody announced: a prompt used to be a question and is becoming a work order. The agents that behave well in my shop are the ones briefed like a contractor — scope stated, ownership stated, boundaries written down, acceptance criteria listed, escalation path defined. The agents that go sideways are the ones briefed like a genie.
Things this draft still needs before it’s field-tested:
- The anatomy of a real work-order prompt, taken from my own systems
- Why “what not to touch” ends up longer than “what to do” — and why that’s correct
- Where specs live when you have agents briefing other agents
This note is still on the bench. The bones are here; the evidence is being collected from live jobs.
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