27/08/2026
Stop asking AI "is my code good?"
That question gets you a compliment. Not a code review.
Here's the prompt I actually use — copy it:
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"Act as a senior engineer doing a strict pull request review on the code below.
Review it in this exact order:
1. Bugs and logic errors — what breaks in production?
2. Security — injection, auth gaps, exposed keys, unvalidated input
3. Performance — unnecessary re-renders, N+1 queries, blocking calls
4. Readability — naming, structure, dead code
5. Edge cases I clearly didn't handle
For each issue: severity (Critical / High / Low), why it matters, and the corrected code.
Do not compliment the code. Do not rewrite everything. Be direct."
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Why this works:
→ You gave it a ROLE (senior engineer, not helpful assistant)
→ You gave it an ORDER (so it doesn't stop at formatting)
→ You gave it an OUTPUT FORMAT (severity + fix)
→ You BLOCKED the flattery ("do not compliment")
That last line changes the output more than anything else.
Vague prompt → vague answer. Structured prompt → an actual senior reviewer.
I use variations of this daily in Cursor and Claude. Saves me hours a week.
More of what I build → developersajeeb.com
Which AI tool are you coding with — Cursor, Copilot, or Claude? 👇
