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Surgical Modification Prompt

GPTClaudeDeepSeek··1,088 copies·updated 2026-07-14
surgical-modification-prompt.prompt
<!--
  TEMPLATE: surgical-modification prompt
  USE INLINE — the prompt you hand an agent to change ONE precise thing.

  A surgical modification corrects a single point and nothing else. Its defining
  feature is the closing prohibition: "no other change than this one". Without
  it, an agent re-does, by its own taste, things that already worked — and you
  inherit regressions you never asked for.

  Use this mode when the existing build is sound and one thing must change. If
  the build has accumulated so many patches that it is incoherent, do NOT use
  this template — do a full rebuild instead (a from-scratch prompt that forbids
  reusing the existing code).

  Fill every <PLACEHOLDER>. Delete these comments. Then paste the result.
-->

SURGICAL MODIFICATION — `<SCREEN_OR_COMPONENT_ID>`

CURRENT PROBLEM
<!-- Name the problem in OBSERVABLE terms — what is on screen, what is wrong
     about it. Not "make it nicer". Describe what a reviewer would see. -->
<Describe exactly what exists today and why it is wrong. Observable facts only:
sizes, layout, copy, behaviour.>

TARGET PATTERN
<!-- The end state, again in observable terms. What the screen should look like
     or do once the change lands. -->
<Describe the intended result. One pattern, clearly stated.>

SPECIFICATIONS
<!-- The precise, numeric instructions for this one change. Numbers the agent
     cannot reinterpret. -->
- <Exact spec line — e.g. "row height 44px, was 64px">.
- <Exact spec line — e.g. "remove the per-item shadow; one container only">.
- <Exact spec line — e.g. "title 600/14px, description 13px on a single line">.

PROHIBITIONS
<!-- The capital prohibition lives here. It is what makes the modification
     surgical. Keep the last line verbatim in spirit. -->
- Do not restyle, re-lay-out, or "tidy" anything outside the change above.
- Do not rename, move, or refactor files that this change does not require.
- Do not change copy, behaviour, or states that were not named above.
- **No other change than this one.** If you believe something else should
  change, stop and say so — do not act on it.

CHECKLIST
<!-- Two kinds of line: the change landed, and nothing else moved. -->
- [ ] The target pattern above is in place.
- [ ] Every numeric spec above is respected.
- [ ] No regression anywhere else on the screen — the rest is byte-for-byte
      the same in behaviour and appearance.
- [ ] No file changed that this modification did not require.

<!--
  AFTER THE CHANGE: verify against a real screenshot or run, not a description.
  A surgical change is "done" only when the diff is exactly the scope above.
-->

when to use it

Community prompt sourced from the open-source GitHub repo gabrielchinarro-pro/mainstay (MIT). A "Surgical Modification Prompt" style prompt — adapt the placeholders and specifics to your task. Imported as-is and not independently retested here, so check the output before relying on it.

tags

productivitycommunitydeveloper

source

gabrielchinarro-pro/mainstay · MIT