Receipts over vibes
Patterns
A pattern is a repeatable move that reduces risk and saves attention. Three kinds: system patterns, human-collaboration patterns, and LLM/prompt patterns.
1) System patterns
How work is structured: lanes, guardrails, audits, and safe shipping.
Receipts over vibes
Auditable outputs, or it didn't happen.
Stop rules
Timebox; stop when diminishing returns hit.
Small slices
Ship reversible increments.
Provenance-first
Cite sources and checkpoints.
Failure modes: unreviewable work, infinite loops, "trust me" outputs.
2) Human-collaboration patterns (LLM ↔ human)
How to ask smart questions and get clear signals.
One question rule
One high-leverage question at a time.
Progressive disclosure
First sentence is the bottom line.
Fail loud, fail early
Bad news first.
Separate decision vs execution
Don't mix modes.
Failure modes: question dumps, walls of text, hidden blockers, thrash.
3) LLM / prompt patterns
How to talk to models: contracts, structure, and verification hooks.
Structured outputs
Schemas, validators, predictable formats.
Evidence-first instructions
Require receipts for key claims.
Adopt / Test / Ignore
Force a verdict.
Failure modes: hallucinations, ambiguous success, non-repeatable runs.
Want the full library?
This page is a starting point. New patterns ship with receipts.