# Ask AI to Follow Your Instructions Before You Ask It to Rewrite Them

> Published 2026-11-09 · https://www.promptzone.com/promptharborworks/ask-ai-to-follow-your-instructions-before-you-ask-it-to-rewrite-them-13hj

A guide can read smoothly and still leave a first-time reader stuck. “Upload the approved file” sounds clear to the person who wrote it. A new reader may have three files and no way to tell which one has been approved.

Before asking AI to polish the guide, ask it to try following the instructions with the information a reader would actually have. This is a text-based walkthrough: the assistant should describe what it would do, without opening files or taking actions.

### Give the assistant a starting point

Write one sentence about the reader and list what they can see. For example: “A new volunteer has access to a folder containing three files: `poster-v3.pdf`, `poster-final.pdf`, and `poster-print.pdf`.”

Then paste the guide and use this prompt:

> Read these instructions as a first-time user. Walk through them in order using only the materials and permissions I listed.
>
> For each step, say what action you would take and what information lets you take it. Stop at the first point where you would have to guess. Quote the instruction that caused the problem, explain what is missing, and suggest the smallest addition that would let you continue.
>
> Do not take external actions, assume access, or rewrite the whole guide.

### Fix the first place a reader gets stuck

In the poster example, a good walkthrough stops before the upload. A filename containing “final” is not evidence of approval. If your team records approvals in a shared tracker, the repair might be one sentence: “Upload the PDF whose filename appears in the Approved column of the print tracker.” Then run the walkthrough again to check whether the reader can find that tracker.

If you are developing your own review prompts, [AI123’s prompt library](https://ai123.com/capability/prompt) is a place to browse examples of how people describe tasks and outputs. For this exercise, keep the output narrow: the first blocked step, the reason it is blocked, and one proposed fix.

Once the walkthrough passes, give the revised guide to someone unfamiliar with the task. They may notice assumptions the assistant missed, especially about where things live or which permissions a new person actually has.