Chapter 13: Templates + Checklists: The Copy/Paste Kit

February 7, 2026 · 4 min read
blog

Series: LLM Development Guide

Chapter 13 of 16

Previous: Chapter 12: Team Collaboration: Handoffs, Shared Prompts, and Review

Next: Chapter 14: Building a Prompt Library: Governance + Quality Bar

What you’ll be able to do

You’ll be able to bootstrap the workflow in minutes:

  • Create plan/, prompts/, and work-notes/ with consistent templates.
  • Add a phase spec template for large, multi-phase projects.
  • Add a phase implementation prompt template for prompt-by-prompt execution.
  • Use session start and end checklists.
  • Generate PR descriptions that explain intent and verification.

TL;DR

  • Templates reduce prompt drift.
  • Keep them short and consistent.
  • Add verification to every phase.
  • For large projects, pair phase specs with implementation prompt docs.

Table of contents

Plan template

# <Project> Plan

## Overview

## Goals
- 

## Context
- Reference implementation:
- Environment:

## Phases

## Definition of done
- [ ]

## Out of scope
- 

## Risks / open questions
-

Prompt template

# Phase <X> - <Name>

## Role

## Context
- Plan:
- Work notes:
- References:

## Task

## Deliverables
1.

## Constraints
- MUST
- MUST NOT

## Session management
Update work notes with decisions, assumptions, open questions, and a session log entry.

## Verification
- Command:
- Expected:

## Commit discipline
Propose a commit message and wait for approval.

Phase spec template (large projects)

# Phase <N><Letter> - <Phase Name>

## Status
Planned

## Depends on
- <Phase dependency>

## Feature flag
- <flag name or n/a>

## Migration
- <none or required steps>

## Design rationale
<Why this phase exists and what risk it reduces>

## Tasks
### Prompt 1
- <task>

### Prompt 2
- <task>

## Files
### New
- <path>

### Modified
- <path>

### Referenced (read-only)
- <path>

## Exit criteria
- [ ] <build command> exits 0
- [ ] <vet/lint command> exits 0
- [ ] <test command> exits 0
- [ ] No ignored returned errors

## Progress notes

Phase implementation prompt template (large projects)

# Phase <N><Letter> - Implementation Prompts

Complete prompts sequentially. Do not continue when verification fails.

## Prompt 1 of <Total>: <Prompt Name>

Context files to load:
- <4 to 6 explicit paths>

Task:
- <exact implementation task>

Constraints:
- Stay within this prompt's scope.
- Handle all returned errors.
- Keep code small and reviewable.
- Do not proceed to the next prompt until verification passes.

Verification:
- <build command>
- <vet/lint command>
- <test command>

Commit discipline:
- Summarize what changed.
- Propose commit message.
- Wait for approval before moving on.

Work notes template

# Phase <X> - <Name>

## Status
- [ ] Not started
- [ ] In progress
- [ ] Blocked
- [ ] Complete

## Decisions

## Assumptions

## Open questions

## Session log

## Commits

Session checklists

Session start:

  • Identify the phase.
  • Load the phase prompt.
  • Load the current work notes.
  • Re-state the smallest goal for this session.

Session end:

  • Work notes updated.
  • Decisions logged with rationale.
  • Verification run.
  • Commits made (or clearly blocked).
  • Next step written down.

PR description template

## Summary

## Changes
- 

## Out of scope
- 

## Verification
- 

## Review guide

## Follow-up
- [ ]

## References
- Work notes:
- Plan:

Verification

Create a local templates/ folder and seed the files:

mkdir -p templates

cat > templates/PLAN-template.md <<'MD'
# Project Plan

## Overview

## Goals

## Phases

## Definition of done
MD

cat > templates/PROMPT-template.md <<'MD'
# Phase - Prompt

## Role

## Context

## Task

## Constraints

## Verification

## Commit discipline
MD

cat > templates/WORK-NOTES-template.md <<'MD'
# Phase - Work Notes

## Status

## Decisions

## Session log
MD

Expected result:

  • You can start a new project by copying these templates and editing the placeholders.

Continue -> Chapter 14: Building a Prompt Library: Governance + Quality Bar

Llm Software-Engineering Workflow Agents
Authors
Roy Gabriel
DevOps Architect · Applied AI Engineer
I’ve spent 20 years building systems across embedded systems, micro-controllers, PLCS, security platforms, fintech, SRE, and platform architecture. Today I focus on production AI systems in Go: multi-agent orchestration, MCP server ecosystems, and the DevOps platforms that keep them running. I care about systems that work under pressure: observable, recoverable, and built to last.