Appendix 13: AI Hallucination Check Prompt

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0100

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.

Self-Diagnosis on Programmer.ie: Modern AI programming

Appendix 13: AI Hallucination Check Prompt