Four-part task brief shown to prevent AI coding agents from scope drift

Coding agents often go off-track not due to technical limitations but because vague task descriptions leave too much room for interpretation. A developer writing for DEV Community proposes structuring agent prompts into four explicit sections: Outcome, Context, Guardrails, and Definition of Done. The Outcome section replaces weak instructions with testable, behavior-focused descriptions, while Context supplies only the specific files and commands needed to avoid information overload. Guardrails set hard boundaries — such as no new dependencies or API changes — and can include escalation rules that instruct the agent to pause and explain before taking risky actions. The Definition of Done requires verifiable evidence like passing tests and a list of changed files, effectively turning task completion into a mini acceptance test.