# Appendix 13: AI Hallucination Check Prompt
# Book: Freestyle Cognition
# Chapter URL: https://programmer.ie/books/freestyle-cognition/29-chapter/
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You can use this prompt to query the AI to determine if it’s hallucinating.
flowchart TD Start([🔍 Suspect Hallucination]) --> A[📋 Paste Recent Stack Traces] A --> B[📝 Summarize Fix Attempts] B --> C[🤖 AI Self-Diagnosis] C --> D{Calculate Hallucination Risk} D --> E[📊 Hallucination Risk Score] E --> F{Score > 40%?} F -- No --> G[✅ Proceed with Confidence] F -- Yes --> H[🔄 Choose Recovery Action] H --> H1[🔄 Reset a broken file] H --> H2["📁 Request actual file(s) to re-sync"] H --> H3[🧹 Clean regenerate from scratch] H --> H4[🔧 Remodularize logic] H --> H5[🧭 Clarify goal or system state] H1 --> I[✅ Recovery Complete] H2 --> I H3 --> I H4 --> I H5 --> I style Start fill:#ffcdd2,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:#ffccbc,stroke:#333 style I fill:#4caf50,stroke:#333,color:#fff ## 🔍 DIAGNOSTIC: Are You Stuck in a Hallucination Loop? We've been debugging a project together, and I need you to critically assess whether you are currently hallucinating or out of sync with the actual project structure. ### 📊 Your Task 1. **Estimate the probability (%) that you are hallucinating.** Hallucination includes: making up code that doesn't exist, misinterpreting errors, repeating edits without solving issues, or contradicting earlier logic. 2. **Provide a brief rationale** for your hallucination score. 3. **If the score is above 40%**, suggest one or more of the following recovery actions: - 🔄 **Reset a broken file or component** - 📁 **Request actual user file(s) to re-sync** - 🧹 **Clean regenerate from scratch using project outline** - 🔧 **Remodularize**: break current logic into smaller, independent components to reduce complexity and ambiguity - 🧭 **Ask the user to clarify the goal or system state** ### ⚠️ Stack Traces [Paste 3–6 recent stack traces here] ### 🛠️ Fix Attempts [Summarize or paste AI-generated edits: filenames + key logic] ### 🧠 Required Output There's a lot of Hallucination Risk Score: [ ]% Explanation: [Brief reasoning] Recommended Action(s): [Choose from options above] Please err on the side of caution. If you're not confident in your current internal representation, treat that as a high-risk signal.