LocalBridge

Day to day work template - 3 to 8 tabs

Debug with documentation prompt template

Most wrong debugging answers come from the assistant recalling an older version of a library. Giving it the current docs and saying so fixes more than any phrasing change.

The prompt

I am debugging. The sources I have given you are the current documentation and issue threads. Prefer them over anything you remember about this library.

Error: [PASTE THE ERROR]
What I expected: [ONE SENTENCE]
What I have tried: [LIST]

Work through this in order:
1. What the error actually means, in plain terms, citing the docs.
2. The three most likely causes given my code and these docs, most likely first.
3. For each cause: the one-line check that confirms or rules it out.
4. Only then, the fix for the most likely cause.

Rules:
- If the docs contradict what you remember, follow the docs and say where they differ.
- If the sources do not cover this, say so instead of producing a plausible answer.
- Do not rewrite code I did not show you.

Why this prompt is written this way

The explicit ranking of the supplied docs over recalled knowledge is the line that matters. Version drift is the single most common cause of confidently wrong debugging help.

Asking for checks before fixes prevents the usual failure pattern: a working-looking fix for the second-most-likely cause, which hides the real bug for a week.

Reporting where the docs differ from what the model remembers is a useful signal in itself. It usually points at the breaking change you missed.

Getting more out of it

  • Include the changelog or release notes tab. It resolves a surprising share of version-drift bugs on its own.
  • Paste the full error, including the stack trace. Truncated errors produce guesses.
  • List what you have already tried, or you will be told to try it again.
  • Run the checks before asking for the fix. It is faster than iterating on suggested fixes.

Works best with

3 to 8 tabs open at once. Send them together rather than one at a time, so the assistant can compare them instead of forgetting the first by the time it reads the last. Sending tabs to Claude explains the options.

Common questions

Why send the docs at all when the assistant knows the library?
Because it knows the version it was trained on. Sending the current page is what makes the difference on anything that has changed since.
How many tabs should I send?
The relevant API reference, the changelog and any matching issue thread is usually enough. More tabs dilute the context rather than helping.
Should I paste my whole codebase?
No. Send the failing function, its immediate callers and the error. Large dumps make the answer worse, not better.

Other templates

Stop pasting tabs one by one

LocalBridge sends the pages you have open into Claude or ChatGPT in one click, so this template gets the sources it needs.

See how it works