10 AI Prompts Every Developer Should Save Right Now (Production-Grade)

Most AI prompts for developers are terrible. "Write me a REST API" returns hello-world code. "Add authentication" returns tutorial-quality output. The difference? Specificity. Here are 10 production-grade prompts I use on every project. 1. REST API Endpoint ❌ Bad: "write a POST endpoint" ✅ Good: Generate a production-ready POST endpoint in [framework]. Include: input validation with field-level errors, JWT auth with RBAC, business logic separated from controller, transaction handling with rollback, correct HTTP status codes, request logging with correlation ID. 2. JWT Authentication ❌ Bad: "add JWT auth" ✅ Good: Create a JWT system with: access token 15min in memory, refresh token 30 days in httpOnly cookie, refresh token rotation with reuse attack detection, rate limiting 5 attempts/15min, 2FA with TOTP and 10 backup codes. 3. Production Dockerfile ❌ Bad: "write a Dockerfile" ✅ Good: Multi-stage build, SHA256 pinned base image, non-root user, layer caching optimization, production-onl