The three questions I use to kick off every new vibe coded project

Since I've written five small applications this year, I realized that I type the exact same three messages every time I start a new application. Posting them just in case they help someone skip an afternoon.

First: before you write any code, ask me five questions about who uses this and what the minimal viable version is. It prevents you from making a huge dashboard, while I wanted a simple form.

Second: suggest a file structure and wait for my approval. Checking a structure takes thirty seconds, unraveling a wrong one takes hours.

Third: for every feature, write down what you’re not going to do. That was the one that took me by surprise. Writing down what you’re not doing helps keep scope creep away.

None of this is genius. It’s more like a routine than a gimmick. But now my working version comes quicker, and I do less rewriting.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. What’s the first thing you say to a new agent session? What prompt would you never leave out? And has anyone found a way to easily share those first prompts among a small team without copying and pasting them into chat each time?