How to talk to the agent

Say it instead of typing

Dictation is often faster than typing, and the agent doesn't need perfect sentences.

• Phone: tap the microphone on your keyboard and speak into the message box.
• Windows: click in the message box and press Win + H to start voice typing.
• Mac: turn on Dictation in System Settings → Keyboard. Then use the Dictation shortcut shown there, or Edit → Start Dictation.

Read it back before you send. Dictation mishears names, repo names and email addresses.

The shape of a good prompt

Every good prompt answers three questions:

1. What do you want?
2. Where: which repo or folder?
3. What does done look like?

"Make it about St. Pete" is too vague. This works:

In your-username/your-repo, change the site title to "A History of St. Petersburg" and rewrite the opening section about St. Petersburg, Florida. Cite a link for every fact you add. Done means the opening section is about St. Petersburg, not Tampa.

If the session has more than one repo, add: "Work only in your-username/your-repo. Treat the other repos as read-only reference."

Plan first on big changes

Before a change that touches many files, ask for a plan and approve it before any edits.

Plan this first. Don't change anything until I say go.

Claude Code also has a Plan mode that does the same thing.

Check its work, and undo

After each change, ask for a summary you can actually read:

Show me what you changed in plain English.

Don't like it? Ask the agent to undo it.

Undo that last change.

Already committed and pushed? Git keeps every committed version, so you can still go back. Say "Revert the last commit and push to main."

When something breaks

Copy the whole error message, not a summary of it, and paste it back:

Here's the error: paste the exact error. Explain what went wrong in plain English and fix it.

Stay safe

• Never paste passwords, tokens or keys into a prompt or a file. Anyone can see a public repo, including its history.
• Read permission prompts before you approve. Pushes, deletes and installs deserve a look. If you're not sure, say no and ask the agent what the step does.
• Don't let it invent facts. A history site is only as good as its sources. Add this to any prompt that writes content:

Only use facts you can cite with a link. Mark anything you can't verify as TBD.