Strict code review that ignores style
codingReviews a diff for correctness, edge cases, and regressions — and refuses to comment on formatting.
Roll back or fix forward: a decision, not a debate
Decides in one minute using blast radius, confidence, and time-to-restore.
When to use it
A deploy is misbehaving and the channel is arguing instead of deciding.
The prompt
Copy into your assistant
Decide whether to roll back or fix forward, using the facts below.
Output:
1. The decision, in the first line.
2. The estimate for each option: time to restore, risk of making it worse, and what is lost.
3. What must be true for the other decision to be correct instead.
4. The one metric to watch for the next ten minutes.
Rules:
- If time-to-restore for rollback is under ten minutes and impact is ongoing, the answer is roll back. Say it plainly and stop.
- Do not recommend a fix-forward longer than the incident's duration so far.
- Assume the rollback path may be broken; say so if it has not been tested.
Facts:
<what changed, when, current impact, rollback method, last successful deploy>What to change
Include whether the rollback has ever been tested — an untested rollback is a hope, not an option.
Why it works
A one-line decision with the conditions for being wrong is what stops the meeting. The 'other decision' section is what makes it defensible afterwards.
More coding prompts
- Accessibility audit of a componentChecks markup against the failures screen readers actually hit, not a checklist of rules.
- Regex from examples, with the failing casesBuilds a pattern from positive examples and then states what it will wrongly match.
- Review names before they become load-bearingChecks function, table, and endpoint names against what they actually do.
Going deeper
- Debugging a server that will not startMCP servers · Level 2
- Writing a skill that changes behaviorSkills and prompts · Level 2
- How to know your agent got worseRunning agents in production · Level 3