# The spec interrogation prompt
The paste-ready scaffold and interrogation prompt, pulled out of the playbook.
**Time:** 3 minutes
**What you'll have when you're done:** Three prompts you can paste today: one to describe a ticket properly, one to make the questions surface before any spec exists, and one to get the artifacts out.
**Before you start:**
- Any AI chat tool you're allowed to use
- A ticket or request you haven't started building yet
---Three blocks, in order, with no explanation attached. The reasoning behind them is in [the full playbook](/guides/working-within-limits/one-sentence-ticket-to-testable-spec/). This page is for when you've read that once and now want the text.
---
## The rule that comes first
**Describe structure. Never paste data.**
Object and field names, relationships, business rules in words, field types, thresholds as concepts: fine. Actual records, customer names, real pricing on real deals, exported reports, screenshots with data visible: never.
Read your company's AI usage policy before you start. If there isn't one, assume the stricter version.
---
## 1. The scaffold
Fill this in before you ask for anything. Five minutes here is the difference between a usable spec and confident filler.
```
CONTEXT
Platform: [e.g. Salesforce, standard approval framework, no custom code preferred]
Objects involved: [names and how they relate]
Who does this: [role, and their permission level]
THE ASK, AS IT ARRIVED
[paste the ticket verbatim, however vague]
WHAT I ALREADY KNOW
- [constraint 1: a thing that must stay true]
- [constraint 2]
- [what triggers this: a button, a status change, a field edit]
- [what has to come out the other end: a document, a notification, a record]
MY CURRENT INSTINCT
[e.g. "formula field over trigger if the logic allows". Say it so it can be argued with]
WHAT I HAVEN'T DECIDED
[anything you know is unresolved]
```
---
## 2. The interrogation prompt
Paste this after the filled-in scaffold. Do not ask for the spec yet.
```
Before writing anything, interrogate this.
List every question a senior developer would ask before starting
that I haven't answered above. Group them:
- Business rules I've assumed but not confirmed
- Edge cases and reversal paths
- What enforces each constraint (validation, lock, or training expectation)
- Approval and audit gaps
- Null and fallback cases for anything customer-facing
Then argue against my stated instinct. Give me the strongest case
for the opposite approach.
Do not write the user story yet.
```
**Good output:** ten to fifteen questions, several of which you can't answer.
**Bad output:** questions whose answers are already in your scaffold. That means your input was too thin, or it ignored it. Say so and re-run.
---
## 3. The artifacts prompt
Only after you've answered what you can and sent the rest to your business owner.
```
Constraints still binding: [restate them. Long conversations drop them]
Answered since: [the questions you resolved, with answers]
Now write:
1. The user story, with acceptance criteria specific enough for QA
to test. Each one a pass/fail statement, not a description
2. The design decision and its reasoning, so it isn't reopened later
3. A test plan covering the reversal and null paths
```
Restating the constraints is not optional. On anything longer than an hour, things established early get quietly dropped.
Download all three →
Plain text, with the failure modes. No signup.
---
## When it breaks
**It skips to the spec anyway.** The last line of block 2 is doing that work. If it still jumps ahead, paste the scaffold again in a fresh conversation rather than arguing with it in this one.
**Every question it asks is already answered in your scaffold.** Your scaffold was too thin, or it ignored it. Either way, say that plainly and run it again.
**It states a platform limit with total confidence.** Governor limits, what a formula field can reference, what a managed package exposes. Treat every platform claim as a hypothesis until a sandbox says otherwise. The reasoning is usually sound. The specific limits often aren't.
**Not on Salesforce?** Change the object names. The three blocks are identical on NetSuite, SAP, Workday, ServiceNow, and the rest.