Chapter 12: Templates + Checklists: The Copy/Paste Kit

February 7, 2026 · 2 min read
blog

Series: LLM Development Guide

Chapter 12 of 15

Previous: Chapter 11: Team Collaboration: Handoffs, Shared Prompts, and Review

Next: Chapter 13: Building a Prompt Library: Governance + Quality Bar

What you’ll be able to do

You’ll be able to bootstrap the workflow in minutes:

  • Create plan/, prompts/, and work-notes/ with consistent templates.
  • Use session start and end checklists.
  • Generate PR descriptions that explain intent and verification.

TL;DR

  • Templates reduce prompt drift.
  • Keep them short and consistent.
  • Add verification to every phase.

Table of contents

Plan template

# <Project> Plan

## Overview

## Goals
- 

## Context
- Reference implementation:
- Environment:

## Phases

## Definition of done
- [ ]

## Out of scope
- 

## Risks / open questions
-

Prompt template

# Phase <X> - <Name>

## Role

## Context
- Plan:
- Work notes:
- References:

## Task

## Deliverables
1.

## Constraints
- MUST
- MUST NOT

## Session management
Update work notes with decisions, assumptions, open questions, and a session log entry.

## Verification
- Command:
- Expected:

## Commit discipline
Propose a commit message and wait for approval.

Work notes template

# Phase <X> - <Name>

## Status
- [ ] Not started
- [ ] In progress
- [ ] Blocked
- [ ] Complete

## Decisions

## Assumptions

## Open questions

## Session log

## Commits

Session checklists

Session start:

  • Identify the phase.
  • Load the phase prompt.
  • Load the current work notes.
  • Re-state the smallest goal for this session.

Session end:

  • Work notes updated.
  • Decisions logged with rationale.
  • Verification run.
  • Commits made (or clearly blocked).
  • Next step written down.

PR description template

## Summary

## Changes
- 

## Out of scope
- 

## Verification
- 

## Review guide

## Follow-up
- [ ]

## References
- Work notes:
- Plan:

Verification

Create a local templates/ folder and seed the files:

mkdir -p templates

cat > templates/PLAN-template.md <<'MD'
# Project Plan

## Overview

## Goals

## Phases

## Definition of done
MD

cat > templates/PROMPT-template.md <<'MD'
# Phase - Prompt

## Role

## Context

## Task

## Constraints

## Verification

## Commit discipline
MD

cat > templates/WORK-NOTES-template.md <<'MD'
# Phase - Work Notes

## Status

## Decisions

## Session log
MD

Expected result:

  • You can start a new project by copying these templates and editing the placeholders.

Continue -> Chapter 13: Building a Prompt Library: Governance + Quality Bar

Llm Software-Engineering Workflow Agents
Authors
Roy Gabriel
DevOps Architect · Applied AI Engineer
I’ve spent 20 years building systems across embedded firmware, security platforms, fintech, and enterprise architecture. Today I focus on production AI systems in Go — multi-agent orchestration, MCP server ecosystems, and the DevOps platforms that keep them running. I care about systems that work under pressure: observable, recoverable, and built to last.