25 Essential AI Prompts Every Developer Should Know

AI assistants have become indispensable tools for modern developers. Here are 25 prompts every developer should have in their toolkit.

Code Generation

Full-Stack Feature Implementation

Create a feature with frontend, backend, database, authentication, and testing components. Include file structure, complete code, API documentation, and setup instructions.

API Endpoint Creation

Create RESTful API endpoints with proper authentication, request/response structures, error handling, rate limiting, validation, and tests.

Debugging

Error Analysis

Analyze errors by providing error message, code context, and environment details. Get root cause explanation, step-by-step fix, prevention strategies, and similar issues to watch for.

Performance Debugging

Identify performance bottlenecks, get optimized versions, complexity analysis, and benchmarking approaches for slow code.

Code Review

Comprehensive Code Review

Review code for best practices, security vulnerabilities, performance issues, maintainability, and test coverage. Get categorized issues, line-by-line feedback, and refactored versions.

Security Audit

Audit code for SQL injection, XSS attacks, CSRF vulnerabilities, authentication flaws, data exposure, and input validation issues with OWASP references.

Documentation

README Generator

Create comprehensive README files with project overview, installation instructions, usage examples, API documentation, contributing guidelines, and license information.

API Documentation

Generate OpenAPI/Swagger documentation with descriptions, parameters, request/response examples, status codes, and authentication requirements.

Testing

Unit Test Generator

Generate unit tests for happy path, edge cases, error conditions, boundary values, and mocked dependencies with 100% code coverage.

Integration Test Suite

Create integration tests for end-to-end workflows, database interactions, API endpoints, authentication flows, and error scenarios.

Pro Tips

Customize for Your Stack: Replace placeholders with your specific technologies and requirements.

Provide Context: Include project background, team conventions, constraints, and expected audience.

Iterate: Don't accept the first output. Ask follow-up questions about efficiency and alternatives.

Combine Prompts: Chain prompts together - generate code, review it, create tests, then document it.

Conclusion

These 25 prompts cover common development tasks from code generation to documentation to DevOps. Master these patterns and customize them for your needs to dramatically boost productivity.