What You'll Learn
Most people blame the AI tool when their app comes out wrong. The real problem is almost always the prompt. A vague prompt gives the AI permission to guess — and it will guess wrong.
The good news: writing great prompts isn't hard. It's a learnable skill, and once you get it, every tool you use gets dramatically better.
Why Vague Prompts Fail
Here's a prompt most beginners write:
Build me a landing page for my startup
This tells the AI almost nothing. What does your startup do? What should the page look like? What sections should it have? The AI fills every gap with generic assumptions — and you get a generic page.
Warning: The AI doesn't read your mind. Every detail you leave out is a decision you're letting the AI make for you. Sometimes it guesses right. Usually it doesn't.
The Anatomy of a Great Prompt
Every good prompt has 5 parts. Miss one and you'll spend extra rounds fixing things that should have been right the first time.
1. What you're building — the type of app or feature. Be specific: "a pricing page with 3 tiers" not "a page."
2. How it should look — design direction, colors, references. "Clean and minimal like Linear" gives the AI a target.
3. How it should work — logic, user flows, what happens when buttons get clicked. Don't assume the AI knows what "sign up" means in your context.
4. What stack/tech to use — framework, database, libraries. Skip this and the AI picks for you (often badly).
5. What NOT to do — constraints matter. "No animations" or "don't use a database" saves you from unwanted complexity.
Before and After: 3 Real Examples
Landing Page
Bad:
Make a landing page for my SaaS product
Good:
Build a landing page for a project management tool called "TaskFlow." Include a hero section with headline, subheadline, and CTA button. Add a 3-column feature grid, a pricing section with Free/Pro/Team tiers, and a footer with links. Use Next.js, Tailwind CSS. Color scheme: dark navy background (#0f172a) with blue accents (#3b82f6). Style: clean, modern, inspired by Linear.app.
The bad prompt produces a generic template. The good prompt produces something that actually looks like your product.
Authentication
Bad:
Add login to my app
Good:
Add email/password authentication using Supabase Auth. Include a sign-up page, login page, and password reset flow. After login, redirect to /dashboard. Show the user's email in the top-right navbar. Protect /dashboard and /settings routes — redirect unauthenticated users to /login. Add a "Sign out" button in the navbar dropdown.
The bad prompt doesn't specify the auth method, the redirect behavior, or which routes to protect. You'll spend 3 more prompts fixing what one good prompt would have nailed.
Dashboard
Bad:
Create a dashboard
Good:
Build an analytics dashboard for a SaaS admin. Top row: 4 stat cards showing Total Users, Active Today, Revenue This Month, and Churn Rate. Below: a line chart (last 30 days of signups) and a bar chart (revenue by plan). Bottom: a table of recent signups with columns for Name, Email, Plan, and Date Joined. Use Recharts for charts. Data can be hardcoded for now. Design: white background, subtle gray borders, Inter font.
The bad prompt gives you a blank page with a sidebar. The good prompt gives you something you can actually screenshot and show to investors.
The One-Feature-at-a-Time Rule
The single biggest mistake in vibe coding: cramming too much into one prompt. When you ask for 10 features at once, the AI does all of them poorly instead of one well.
Pro tip: One prompt = one feature. Build, test, then move on. It feels slower but it's actually faster because you spend zero time debugging tangled messes.
Break big requests into focused prompts:
Prompt 1: "Build a task list with add, complete, and delete functionality. Store tasks in Supabase. Show tasks in a clean list with checkboxes." Prompt 2: "Add drag-and-drop reordering to the task list. Save the new order to the database when a task is moved." Prompt 3: "Add a filter bar above the task list with options: All, Active, Completed. Filter the visible tasks based on selection."
Each prompt builds on the last. Each one is testable on its own. If something breaks, you know exactly which prompt caused it.
How to Describe UI in Prompts
Don't say "make it look nice." That means nothing to an AI.
Reference apps people know: "styled like Notion" or "inspired by the Stripe dashboard" gives the AI a clear target. Specify colors with hex codes, not words — "#3b82f6" beats "blue" every time.
Try this: Describe layout in terms of position: "sidebar on the left, main content on the right, stat cards in a 4-column grid at the top." The more spatial detail you give, the fewer rounds of fixes you'll need.
Design: minimal and clean, inspired by Vercel's dashboard. White background, #f8fafc for card backgrounds. Text in #0f172a. Blue accent buttons (#2563eb). Sidebar navigation on the left (240px wide). Main content area with 24px padding. Cards with subtle border (#e2e8f0) and 8px border radius.
How to Describe Logic in Prompts
UI is what it looks like. Logic is what it does. Most beginners describe the UI and forget the logic entirely.
Describe user flows step by step: "User clicks 'Add Task' → modal opens → user types task name → clicks 'Save' → modal closes → task appears at the top of the list." Cover edge cases: what happens with empty input? What if the database is down?
When a user submits the contact form: 1. Validate all fields — name (required), email (valid format), message (min 10 characters) 2. If validation fails, show inline error messages below each field in red 3. If validation passes, save to Supabase "contacts" table and show a green success banner 4. Disable the submit button while saving to prevent double submissions 5. If the save fails, show "Something went wrong. Please try again." — don't show technical error details
Your Prompt Template
Copy this, fill in the blanks, and use it with any vibe coding tool:
Build a [type of app] with these features: WHAT IT DOES: - [Core feature 1] - [Core feature 2] - [Core feature 3] DESIGN: - [Color scheme / style reference] - [Layout description] - Mobile responsive TECH STACK: - [Framework] with [database] - [Any specific libraries] CONSTRAINTS: - [What NOT to include] - [Performance requirements]
Pro tip: Save your best prompts somewhere. You'll reuse patterns constantly — auth flows, CRUD pages, form handling. Build a personal prompt library and you'll get faster with every project.
Built by Us
This guide is based on real builds. gptsters.com is built with vibe coding — see for yourself.