This guide distills patterns from hundreds of successful AI-assisted development sessions. The core insight: you're not "prompting" a tool, you're collaborating with a knowledgeable partner who happens to have no memory of yesterday.
Stop thinking: "How do I get the AI to produce the right output?" Start thinking: "How do I collaborate with a senior developer who has amnesia?"
This reframe changes everything. You wouldn't give a colleague a vague task and hope for the best. You'd share context, explain your reasoning, discuss tradeoffs, and work together toward a solution.