PROMPTING Guide How To Talk To Agents

# How to Talk to Your AI Coding Agents

## A Practical Prompting Guide for Pi and Hermes

**Companion to the [AI Coding Agents Setup Guide](AI-Coding-Agents-Setup-Guide.md)**

You installed the agents. You're staring at a blinking cursor. Now what?

This guide teaches you how to write prompts that get good results, how to recover when things go wrong, and how to use each agent's unique features. It includes real examples you can try right now.

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## TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The #1 mistake beginners make
2. The five rules of good prompts
3. Worked example: Build a project with Pi from scratch
4. Pi-specific techniques
5. Hermes-specific techniques
6. Hermes learning from Pi: the skill workflow
7. Prompt templates you can copy
8. When the agent gets it wrong

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## PART 1: The #1 Mistake Beginners Make

The most common mistake is being too vague.