Claude Prompt Test: The Smart New Colleague Check

Anthropic's "Golden Rule of Clear Prompting" advises writing prompts the way you would brief a smart new colleague who has no prior context on your project: if they would need to ask a follow-up question, Claude likely needs that information too. Use this diagnostic prompt to audit drafts before deployment.

Act as a smart new colleague who knows nothing about our project. Read the <draft_prompt> below. Do not execute the task. Instead, identify every ambiguity regarding who will read the result, what a successful answer looks like, and where you would need to ask a follow-up question. <draft_prompt>{{YOUR_PROMPT}}</draft_prompt>