Ask For The Plan Before The Code

The failure mode with code generation is not bad syntax. It is a confidently written 200-line implementation of the wrong approach.

The fix is two prompts:

Prompt one: "Here is the problem and the constraints. Do not write code yet. Give me two or three approaches with the trade-off of each, and say which you would pick."

Read it. Disagree if you disagree. Then:

Prompt two: "Go with approach 2. Now write it."

This costs you thirty seconds and saves the review cycle where you realise on line 180 that the whole thing assumes single-tenant.

It also surfaces assumptions early. Half the time the plan reveals the model misread a requirement, and that is much cheaper to fix in a plan than in code.