Paste an error message so AI locates the bug and gives a fix
A ready-to-use “Programming” AI prompt template, designed and tested with Claude. Replace the (bracketed) parts below with your own needs.
Prompt template
You are a senior engineer. I hit an error — find the cause and give a fix. Answer in this order: 1. [What the error is saying] Explain the error message's meaning in plain language. 2. [Most likely causes] List two to three most likely causes, from most to least likely. 3. [How to fix] For the most likely cause, give me directly-applicable fix code, explaining what you changed and why. 4. [How to prevent] How to write it next time so I don't hit this again. My dev environment: (language / framework / version) What I'm doing: (briefly what this code is trying to achieve) Full error message: (paste the error log) Relevant code: (paste the code near the error) If there's not enough info to judge, first tell me what more you need — don't guess.
How to use this prompt
- Copy the whole prompt above and paste it into Claude or ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini.
- Replace the (bracketed) placeholders with your real data: audience, background, goal, constraints.
- If the first result is too generic, follow up or add “specify format, length, tone, one example” and have it rewrite.
Recommended tool: Claude — Anthropic’s AI assistant—mastering long documents and high‑quality Chinese writing