React Compiler core member's go-to prompt: make AI restate your goals before it works
sujingshen · x · 2026-10-06
Lauren (React Compiler core team, ex-Cursor/Meta/Netflix) shared her most-used prompt — 11k+ likes: "restate in your own words what you think my goals are and what the problem I'm trying to solve is." She suggests voice-chatting for 10 minutes first, then having the AI restate.
It's the classic product rule of repeating requirements back before starting. In her earlier pstack AI coding workflow guide, an example: on a Slack-reported issue, have the agent read the whole thread and restate the underlying problem before coding. Three benefits: compression (turning noisy discussion into a clear problem statement), course-correction (spotting a wrong understanding before any code is written), and avoiding bias (not seeding your own assumptions that may limit the agent).
She calls this "indirect prompting" — instead of specifying exactly what you want, guide the agent to articulate its understanding first. One extra round of dialogue is cheap insurance against discovering misalignment only after many files have been changed. Works with Claude Code, Codex, and similar tools.
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