Prompt Debt

Prompt debt is an emerging concept as teams scale their vibe coding practices. Poor prompting habits that seem harmless individually create compounding problems over time.

How Prompt Debt Accumulates

No shared standards:

• Each developer prompts differently
• Inconsistent results across team
• No way to replicate good outcomes

Undocumented knowledge:

• Individuals know what works but don't share
• Knowledge lost when people leave
• Repeated trial-and-error

Bad habits persist:

• Vague prompts become normal
• Nobody challenges ineffective approaches
• "It works sometimes" accepted

Signs of Prompt Debt

• "I can't get AI to do what [colleague] gets it to do"
• Wide variation in AI-generated code quality
• Repeated frustration with AI capabilities
• New team members struggle to use AI effectively
• No shared vocabulary for prompting

Paying Down Prompt Debt

Build a prompt library:

• Document what works
• Share effective prompts
• Version and improve over time

Establish standards:

• Common terminology
• Cursor Rules for the project
• Expected prompt structures

Review and learn:

• Share prompting successes
• Discuss what didn't work
• Iterate as a team

Prevention

• Start with documented practices
• Build the prompt library from day one
• Treat prompts as artifacts worth maintaining
• Onboard new developers on prompting practices

Prompt debt, like technical debt, is easier to prevent than to fix.