The prompt is the job card
A useful prompt names the work, the boundary, the evidence and the stop condition. Otherwise the model fills in the missing job from habit.
Series 003 · prompting as specification writing
Stop writing wishes. Start writing work orders.
Prompting is becoming specification writing because agents now touch tools, files and workflows. The words are not decoration. They are the job card the machine will actually work from.
Forbidden actions matter as much as goals
Good specs say what not to touch: no public send, no secret printout, no unrelated rewrite, no silent deployment, no fake certainty.
Acceptance criteria beat vibes
If the agent cannot prove what changed, what passed and what remains risky, the job is not complete. Confidence is not a deliverable.
Handoffs should be executable
The next human or model should receive paths, commands, gates and artifacts — not a charming summary that hides the real state.
Task:
Scope:
Forbidden actions:
Inputs/evidence:
Steps:
STOP gates:
Verification:
Artifacts to return:That shape is boring on purpose. Boring survives handoff. Boring lets another agent or human review the work without guessing what the first one meant.