Refine a Prompt That Gave Bad Results
When your prompt produces garbage, use this meta-prompt to diagnose why and generate a better version.
5 min|Beginner
BuildQuick WinDeveloperFounder
Prompt Template
My prompt gave bad results. Help me fix it. Original prompt: [paste the exact prompt you used] What I got: [describe or paste the output] What I actually wanted: [describe the expected output in detail] The gap between what I got and what I wanted: [be specific: wrong technology, wrong scope, missing pieces, wrong tone, etc.] Diagnose the prompt failure: 1. Was the prompt too vague? (AI had to guess) 2. Was context missing? (AI didn't know about my project/stack) 3. Were constraints missing? (AI added things I didn't want) 4. Was the output format unclear? (AI didn't know what shape to return) Then rewrite my prompt to fix the diagnosed issues. Show me the before/after with annotations explaining each change. Do NOT just add more words. Make the prompt more precise, not longer." **Output format:** Diagnosis + rewritten prompt with annotations.
Diagnosing the failure type (vague, missing context, no constraints) targets the fix. Most bad prompts suffer from one specific issue, not general badness.
After any prompt gives results that are more than 50% wrong. Below 50%, just iterate. Above 50%, diagnose and rewrite.