"Assume Author is an Idiot": Prompt Engineering Stricter Code Agents
aronchick · x · 2026-08-17
Mitchell Hashimoto shared an excerpt from his "judge" agent system prompt, instructing the AI to distrust the author and assume they have ill intent or are incompetent until proven otherwise. This "defensive pessimism" technique aims to force the agent to ensure rock-solid code quality. The community humorously likened sharing such hardcore prompts to the revival of developer dotfiles culture.
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