Prompt cookbook

What to say for the supported Context Circuit cases, in ordinary project language.

You do not need Context Circuit commands, record IDs, branch names, or internal vocabulary. Tell the coordinator the project outcome or decision in ordinary language. It chooses the matching procedure and uses the CLI for exact bookkeeping.

This cookbook covers the supported v2 conversation surface. The wording is illustrative: replace names, paths, repositories, branches, providers, and outcomes with your own.

Learn what you opened

Explain this workspace

Prompt

What is this project, which repositories belong to it, and what does the workspace already know?

The agent reads workspace identity, relationships, local bindings, and relevant knowledge. It explains the project without changing anything.

Show current work

Prompt

What changes are currently planned or in progress, and which repositories do they affect?

The agent resolves records and checks real branches and diffs before describing implementation state.

Check workspace consistency

Prompt

Check this Context Circuit workspace and explain every finding. Do not repair anything that needs my decision.

check is diagnostic. A finding names the command, edit, or human decision that discharges it.

Create or join a workspace

Create a new project workspace

Prompt

Create a Context Circuit workspace for “Acme Billing.” Its purpose is subscription billing for small businesses. Add me as Maya.

Initialization happens only on request. Add your preferred language and writing tone if intents and plans should use them.

Join an existing workspace on another machine

Prompt

This is an existing team workspace. Set this machine up for member maya, connect the workspace checkout, and obtain the repositories already recorded here.

The agent selects the existing member and binds this machine. It does not initialize the shared workspace again.

Add a member

Prompt

Add Alex to this workspace. Write Alex's intents and plans in Indonesian with a semi-formal tone and keep technical terms in English.

Configure offline allocation

Prompt

Give Maya and Alex separate allocation bands so each can create records from an offline clone without choosing the same IDs.

Bands reduce one collision class; they are not distributed locking. Workspace commits still need synchronization before separate clones allocate.

Connect repositories

Connect an existing checkout

Prompt

Connect ../billing-api as api. It owns billing rules and starts work from main.

Clone a repository already described by the workspace

Prompt

Clone the web repository recorded in this workspace and use release/24.4 as this machine's base branch.

The shared default branch and this machine's base branch are different facts.

Register a new remote repository

Prompt

Add the existing checkout at ../notifications as notifications, record its origin, and describe it as the service that sends billing emails.

Initialize an empty repository

Prompt

Create a new local repository called reporting, connect it to the workspace, and use main as its initial branch.

Record a relationship

Prompt

Record that web consumes the api billing endpoints and that api publishes invoice events to notifications.

Describe the workspace repository

Prompt

Connect this workspace's own Git repository so team members know where the shared records travel.

The workspace repository is not a work repository and is not named by plans.

Install and update Context Circuit

Install the pinned CLI

Prompt

Install the Context Circuit CLI version this workspace pins and verify the installed binary.

Update only the CLI

Prompt

Update the CLI used by this workspace to version 2.2.0. Do not change the workspace template or existing records.

Update the workspace template

Prompt

Update this workspace from its recorded template version to 2.2.0. Show me the upstream delta and preserve our project-owned files and records.

The agent applies the version-to-version delta. It does not recopy a release over the workspace.

Configure agent roles

Prompt

Show the explorer, planner, worker, and reviewer settings in force for Cursor on this machine.

Prompt

Configure the Cursor planner to use <supported-model> with high effort, then refresh the native role definitions without overwriting customized definitions.

Settings express host preferences. A generated definition does not prove the host loaded it.

Build project knowledge

Gather from named evidence

Prompt

Read sources/billing-rules.md and sources/customer-interviews.md. Turn the durable product rules into project knowledge, update the catalog and glossary, and keep raw evidence separate.

Only the exact named sources are read. The resulting notes describe the project, not those source files.

Gather from repositories

Prompt

Document how invoices move from draft to paid by reading the relevant api and web code. Add durable knowledge with repository anchors.

Query knowledge

Prompt

What does this project already know about invoice cancellation, credit notes, and overdue reminders?

The agent retrieves the smallest relevant set through the catalog instead of scanning every note.

Add actor knowledge

Prompt

Document what a freelance seller and an accounts-payable reviewer each need from the invoice approval flow today.

Actor notes describe current needs, not a future backlog.

Clarify vocabulary

Prompt

We use “void” and “cancel” differently. Record the project meaning and the code identifiers each repository uses.

Mount organization knowledge

Prompt

Mount our platform-knowledge repository as read-only shared knowledge, using index.md as its catalog.

Retrieve borrowed knowledge

Prompt

Find what our project and the mounted platform knowledge say about idempotency.

Matches identify which side owns each note. Borrowed knowledge is never copied into this workspace.

Reconcile stale knowledge

Prompt

Check which owned knowledge may be stale against the code. Walk me through the findings and update only notes you actually re-read.

Design before deciding an outcome

Use a system design when a large change needs its shape settled before it can be expressed as bounded outcomes.

Prompt

Design the end-to-end subscription billing system: actors, domain boundaries, repository responsibilities, data flow, failure behavior, and rollout constraints. Write it as source material; do not create intents or start implementation.

A design has no status and grants no approval. It is evidence an intent may cite when the outcome genuinely rests on it.

Request a normal product change

Start an intent

Prompt

Add recurring billing to the API and web app. Existing customers must remain on their current plans.

The agent retrieves relevant knowledge, writes the outcome it understood, asks numbered questions, and stops before detailed code investigation.

Answer open questions

Prompt

Monthly and annual plans only.

Existing subscriptions keep their price until manually changed.

Failed renewals retry for seven days.

Approve the written outcome

Prompt

The intent matches what I want. I approve it.

Approval records your exact words and authorizes planning only. The agent then reads real code and writes linked plans without asking for planning permission.

Correct the outcome before approval

Prompt

Do not include annual plans in this change. Update the intent and show it again.

Change an approved outcome

Prompt

The success criteria must now include prorated upgrades. Update the intent and ask me to approve the changed outcome.

A material outcome change returns to the intent. An implementation detail inside the approved outcome does not.

Make a direct change

Explicitly bypass records and worktrees

Prompt

/cc-direct Fix the incorrect support email in the website checkout. Work on its current branch and leave the change uncommitted.

Direct code change with an exact outcome

Prompt

Make this validation message say “Workspace name is required.” Change it directly in the bound web checkout, run the relevant test, and do not commit.

If the request turns out to need a product decision, the agent stops and offers the intent path.

Explore without changing code

Ask a bounded codebase question

Prompt

Find where invoice numbers are allocated, which database constraint makes them unique, and which tests cover collisions. Return evidence only.

Compare repositories

Prompt

Trace how the web app submits an invoice and how api validates it. Identify mismatched assumptions without proposing a new outcome.

Investigate feasibility before changing the intent

Prompt

Before I decide whether offline invoice creation belongs in the outcome, investigate the current synchronization model and tell me what is feasible.

Exploration is read-only. It cannot approve, plan, or implement a change by itself.

Execute planned work

Run one plan

Prompt

Execute p0007. Prepare its worktrees, implement the approved outcome, run the repository checks, and report what remains unverified.

Run all plans for an intent

Prompt

Execute all plans for the recurring-billing intent. Derive their dependency order and recommend waves or a linear chain with the cost of each.

Choose the execution shape

Prompt

Use waves for this run.

Prompt

Use a linear chain for this run.

Resume interrupted work

Prompt

Resume p0007. Inspect the actual branches and diffs before trusting the plan record, preserve partial work, and continue from what Git shows.

Handle a blocked run

Prompt

Explain which plans finished, which one is blocked, and which dependents are waiting. Preserve every branch and do not invent a repair for anything that needs my decision.

An execution request covers worktree preparation, implementation commits on the plan branches, and local integration merges required by that run. It does not authorize delivery.

Use subagents

Delegate exploration

Prompt

Use explorers to investigate the API retry policy and the web cancellation flow in parallel. Return evidence; do not edit either repository.

Delegate implementation

Prompt

Dispatch one worker per ready plan, wait for every result, and integrate their reported checks. Stop if a worker is blocked.

Use several workers in one worktree

Prompt

Split this plan into bounded worker tasks inside the same worktree. Make every worker preserve the others' edits.

One worker per plan owns a whole worktree. Several workers inside one worktree share files; the briefs must say which form is being used.

Review

Ordinary review

Prompt

Review the current branch diff for correctness, regressions, security risks, and missing tests. Do not change code.

Independent review

Prompt

Independently review the changes for p0007 against the intent's success criteria. Use a fresh read-only reviewer and report any limit on independence.

Review a pull request

Prompt

Independently review pull request <url> and give me findings with locations. Do not post comments or launch fixes.

Independent review is optional, manually requested, and never an automatic delivery gate.

Deliver work

Each outward action must be requested explicitly.

Commit direct work

Prompt

Commit the direct website changes using the repository's commit convention. Do not push.

Worktree implementation commits are covered by execution; commits in a bound checkout are not.

Push a branch

Prompt

Push the branch for p0007. Do not open a pull request.

Open pull requests

Prompt

Open pull requests for the recurring-billing work against each machine's recorded base branch. Use only the chain-end branch for each repository.

Update a pull request

Prompt

Update the API pull request description to reflect the revised retry behavior.

Merge

Prompt

Merge pull requests <api-url> and <web-url> into their current targets.

Deploy or publish

Prompt

Deploy the merged website revision to <environment> and report what was actually observed.

Delivery does not mark plans complete.

Complete the circuit

Complete one plan

Prompt

The change from p0007 has landed. Mark the plan complete with these exact words: “Recurring billing shipped in the API.”

Complete several plans

Prompt

The recurring-billing pull requests have landed. Mark all of its plans complete and reconcile the durable knowledge once across the set.

State that knowledge did not change

Prompt

Complete p0008. This was a presentation-only correction; confirm whether any durable knowledge changed and record the result honestly.

Completion is the note plus knowledge reconciliation. Most completions change no durable concept.

Organize and clean up

Archive records

Prompt

Archive the completed recurring-billing intent and plans. Preserve every ID reservation and repair relative links.

Prompt

Restore p0007 from the archive.

Archival is optional organization, not a lifecycle stage.

Remove a worktree

Prompt

Remove the worktree for p0007 if it is safe. Preserve dirty, untracked, and ignored files, and keep the branch.

Discard a worktree explicitly

Prompt

Remove the p0007 worktree and discard its dirty, untracked, and ignored files. Keep the branch.

Delete a branch

Prompt

Delete the local cc/p0007/api branch after confirming its work is preserved elsewhere.

Worktree removal and branch deletion are separate requests.

Recover and repair local mechanics

Inspect worktrees

Prompt

List the real Git worktrees and explain any stale Context Circuit association.

Move a worktree

Prompt

Move the worktree for p0007 to <new-path> using Git and update the local association.

Repair an association

Prompt

Repair the local worktree association for p0007 from Git's inventory. Do not reset or recreate its branch.

Change this machine's base

Prompt

Change the api checkout's base branch on this machine to release/24.4. Do not change the shared repository default.

Ask for honest limits

These prompts are useful when evidence is incomplete:

Prompt

Report only checks you actually ran and observations you actually made. Call everything else unverified.

Prompt

Preserve partial work and tell me the smallest decision or external action needed to continue.

Prompt

Do not call the implementing session's own inspection independent.

Prompt

Do not print environment contents, credentials, provider payloads, or machine-specific paths into shared records.

Requests that should not be combined

Keep these decisions explicit even if they happen in one conversation:

Do not conflate	Why
Initial request and intent approval	The approved object is the written outcome
Intent approval and execution	Approval authorizes planning only
Execution and independent review	Review is optional and read-only
Execution and delivery	Push, PR, merge, and deploy are outward actions
Delivery and completion	Landing code does not reconcile knowledge
Completion and worktree removal	A completed branch may still be useful
Worktree removal and branch deletion	They preserve different artifacts