The 3-Prompt Rule: Why Limiting AI Turns Produces Better Code

Here's a counterintuitive trick: the fewer prompts you send, the better your AI-generated code gets. I call it the 3-prompt rule. For any coding task, limit yourself to three interactions. If you can't get a good result in three turns, the problem isn't the AI — it's your approach. Why 3? Most AI coding sessions go wrong after turn 3: Turn 1: Clear instruction → good output Turn 2: Focused refinement → better output Turn 3: Edge case or final adjustment → done Turn 4+: "Actually, change this..." → context degradation, contradictions, regression By turn 5-6, you're often debugging problems the AI introduced while "fixing" earlier problems. The context window is polluted with conflicting instructions. The 3-Prompt Structure Prompt 1: The Spec Give everything upfront. Don't trickle requirements. Implement a rate limiter middleware for Express. Requirements: - Token bucket algorithm - Configurable: max tokens, refill rate, refill interval - Per-IP tracking using a Map (no Redis dependency)