What you’ll take away
01Name the output02Give the necessary context03Set boundaries01 / Name the output
Ask for an artifact you can open and inspect: a comparison table, a working change, a draft with sources or a clearly scoped checklist. “Help with the project” leaves the most important part unspecified.
02 / Give the necessary context
Include the intended audience, relevant files and important constraints. Remove unrelated material. If the assistant is missing a source, tell it to identify the gap instead of filling it with a plausible guess.
03 / Set boundaries
Say what can be changed and what needs your decision first. For a software task, distinguish local edits from publishing. For research, distinguish a source’s claim from a result you have actually measured.
04 / Define the check
Choose a check that matches the intended outcome. For a CSV export, compare its rows and filters with the source. For a summary, check important claims against the original material. Do not accept formatting as proof of correctness.
05 / Ask for a useful handover
Request four things: what changed, what was checked, what remains uncertain and what needs to happen next. Reuse the Project Setup Checklist to keep the next brief short and consistent.