Describe the permitted work
Name the target behavior and the files you expect to be involved. State whether the first pass is investigation or implementation. If commands may write files, say which checks are appropriate and what output is expected. A prompt is not an access control mechanism; use the application's actual permissions to enforce boundaries where available.
Preserve the surrounding decisions
Ask the assistant to follow the project's existing language, dependency choices, and formatting. Identify interfaces that must remain stable. Have it surface a necessary wider change before starting that work. This keeps a small repair reviewable and reduces the chance that unrelated cleanup hides a behavioral regression.
Define a useful handoff
Request a summary of the changed behavior, the checks actually run, and anything that could not be verified. Do not require a ceremonial report for every tiny edit. The agreement should help you decide whether to accept the work. Revise it when repeated misunderstandings reveal a missing constraint, rather than accumulating instructions without a clear purpose.
