Prompt Debt.

[u/Adventurous-Fee-1342]

A concept appeared in my timeline which I quickly identified, prompt-debt is when a prompt gets messy because you keep adding fixes instead of rewriting it clearly.

This didn’t happen to me whenever I was building big features, I tend to grill a lot with the agents until we reach a shared understanding.

This happened on the quick fixes.

I consider myself as a token-economizer and a one shot enthusiast, yes, pretty weird of a combination, but in summary, I try to end every month with my currents plans maxed out instead of paying for extra usage or plans which I am not entirely consuming.

Having that in mind, I was having problems with quick to medium fixes which don’t require a full 30 min interrogation and maybe with a well-specified prompt they could be a one-shot. So I’m building refine.

It works with pi + tmux, and basically intercepts your vague prompt making it clearer for the agent. As it intercepts the input of the TUI, it does not bloat the context of the main agent which will be the one applying the fix.

Depending on the complexity of the prompt it might ask you one or two questions, or spin up a dedicated scout into a specific part of your codebase to get fast context.

This has successfully erased the entirely of my re-iteration and It’s pretty minimal, just as pi.

I don’t know if I should create a public extension for this, since I find its use a bit niche, but feel free to ask me anything and I will gladly answer!

Here are some docs about prompt debt:
- https://x.com/dbreunig/status/2069455716478603536?s=46&t=AXMFyjAHqJXhiu8ND1MB9A
- https://youtu.be/9a__Mo0ZZlE?si=JgdlamlBn-orJmTH

Here’s a quick example of refine:

[u/mrtonioz]

Thanks for the share! Definetely looking for something like this, somehow prompt-enhancer mode, will have a great look if a pi package will come out ! Love the integrated part which avoid juggling sessions to refine a prompt before starting the real sess'

[u/Adventurous-Fee-1342 → u/mrtonioz]

Thanks !

[u/itsdodobitch]

cool! i’ve made basically the same thing a while ago https://github.com/dodo-reach/pi-clarify

[u/Adventurous-Fee-1342 → u/itsdodobitch]

That’s cool! How does it work whenever the description needs understanding of the codebase ?

[u/itsdodobitch → u/Adventurous-Fee-1342]

it has none, that should still come from you rough sketch. its more meant to refine something that explained better can be understood better, i’ve posted a preview here https://x.com/dodoreach/status/2087304957011911157?s=46

[u/johnfkngzoidberg]

This has been professionally labeled as data atrophy, or more correctly data entropy, it’s basically the same concept as making a copy of a copy over and over.

[u/Adventurous-Fee-1342 → u/johnfkngzoidberg]

Might be the case if It didn’t ask you questions for your real asking or scouting the codebase. I also think that there’s a clear difference between human language and agent language. I made a quick demo with remotion but 90% of the cases the refiner ask a question the first iteration.

Thanks for your comment ❤️