# Appendix 12: Machine Coding: Pre-Prompt Checklist
# Book: Freestyle Cognition
# Chapter URL: https://programmer.ie/books/freestyle-cognition/28-chapter/
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✅ Pre-Prompt Checklist: Define Your App Before the AI Builds It Use this checklist to clarify your thinking before engaging the AI in coding your tool or app.
flowchart TD Start([💡 App Idea]) --> A[🧱 Data Design<br>Tables, flow, storage] A --> B[🛠️ Technical Foundations<br>CLI/Web, language, framework] B --> C[🔐 Configuration & Secrets<br>.env, config wrapper] C --> D[🧠 Intelligence Layer<br>Models, local/API] D --> E[📦 Embeddings & Search<br>Vector search, embedding model] E --> F[📥 Input Handling<br>Format, batch support] F --> G[📤 Output Handling<br>Console, file, DB] G --> H([✅ Ready to Prompt AI]) style Start fill:#e1f5fe,stroke:#333 style A fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#333 style B fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#333 style C fill:#fce4ec,stroke:#333 style D fill:#f3e5f5,stroke:#333 style E fill:#fff9c4,stroke:#333 style F fill:#e0f7fa,stroke:#333 style G fill:#c8e6c9,stroke:#333 style H fill:#4caf50,stroke:#333,color:#fff 🧱 Data Design Have you defined your core tables or data structure? Do you know how your data flows through the app — from input to output? Have you considered how you’ll store, retrieve, and update records? 🛠️ Technical Foundations Will this be a CLI, Web App, or something else? What’s your preferred language and framework (e.g., Python + FastAPI)? Are you using an ORM (e.g., SQLAlchemy), or sticking with dataclasses + raw SQL? Will you manage schema with migrations, a .sql file, or something else? 🔐 Configuration & Secrets Do you want to use a .env file for secrets and environment variables? Is there a configuration wrapper class you plan to use? 🧠 Intelligence Layer Which model(s) will power your AI interactions? (e.g., qwen:2.5, mxbai-embed-large) Will you use local models (e.g., Ollama) or API-based models? 📦 Embeddings & Search Do you plan to use vector search (e.g., pgvector)? Have you chosen an embedding model, and do you know the expected dimension size? 📥 Input Handling What is the input format for your app? (e.g., Markdown file, CLI args, JSON payload) Do you want to support batch processing, or just single sessions? 📤 Output Handling What should your app output? (e.g., print to console, write to file, store in DB) Do you need to track results in a database or results log?