Commits and Conflicts

Paul’s Hint of the Week · #2

Test-First Prompting: Make the AI Prove It

· 3 min read

Inspired by Episode 5: Therapy Session 4: Trust Issues

Get a failing test before the fix and real output instead of “all tests pass.” A repeatable loop for AI bug fixes you can trust.

What’s inside

  1. The goal
  2. Before you start
  3. Step by step
  4. Step 1: Describe the bug with evidence
  5. Step 2: Ask for a failing test only
  6. Step 3: Ask for the minimal fix
  7. Step 4: Run the whole suite and read the raw output
  8. Step 5: Review the test like code
  9. Step 6: Commit the test and fix together
  10. Prompts to steal
  11. Checklist
  12. Common mistakes

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