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Swantide Best Practices & Prompt Library

Best Practices for using Swantide Documentation and AI Assistant. Example prompts for common use cases

Engineering Swantide avatar
Written by Engineering Swantide
Updated this week

The Golden Rule: Be Specific

Swantide's AI analyzes ~10 metadata components at a time. Reference specific components by name for best results.

✅ AI Assistant vs. ❌ Documentation Tab

Your Goal

Right Tool

Debug a specific error

✅ AI Assistant

List all fields on an object

❌ Documentation

Understand how a trigger works

✅ AI Assistant

See all validation rules

❌ Documentation

Get code recommendations

✅ AI Assistant

List every permission in a permission set

❌ Documentation

Design a solution

✅ AI Assistant

Browse all Apex classes

❌ Documentation

7 Winning Prompt Patterns

1. "Tell me about [specific component]"

"Tell me about the flow 'Opportunity_Close_Automation'"

2. "What happens when [specific event]?"

"What happens when an Opportunity Stage changes to Closed Won?"

3. "Why is [specific behavior] happening?"

"Why is the field Account.Territory__c being automatically populated?"

4. "What would break if [specific change]?"

"What would break if I delete the field Opportunity.Legacy_ID__c?"

5. "How should I [specific task]?"

"How should I optimize the SOQL query in AccountTrigger line 45?"

6. "Write [specific deliverable]"

"Write a test class for ContactTrigger with bulk testing and 3 assertions"

7. "Review [component] and [action]"

"Review the OpportunityTrigger and suggest optimizations"

✅ Great Prompts by Phase

Discovery & Analysis

  • "Walk me through what happens when a Case is escalated"

  • "Generate discovery questions about the Contract renewal process"

  • "What depends on the flow 'Lead_Scoring_Update'?"

Build

  • "Write an Apex trigger for Project__c that prevents deletion if there are active Milestones"

  • "Create a formula field on Opportunity that shows 'At Risk' if Close Date is within 7 days and Probability < 50%"

  • "Review the AccountTrigger and suggest optimizations"

Testing

  • "Write a test class for AccountTrigger covering positive, negative, and bulk scenarios"

  • "Create a UAT test script for the new Lead assignment flow with expected results"

  • "Generate a deployment plan for moving OpportunityTrigger to production"

Troubleshooting

  • "I'm getting 'System.NullPointerException at line 67' in OpportunityTrigger. What's causing this?"

  • "Users aren't receiving approval emails for expense requests over $5K. Where does this logic live?"

  • "Why might the Lead_Status__c field be getting set to 'Qualified' automatically?"

❌ Wrong Tool - Use Documentation Instead

Don't ask AI for:

  • "Show me all fields on Account"

  • "List every validation rule in the org"

  • "Give me all Apex classes"

  • "Export the complete data schema"

  • "Document all flows on Case object"

Any question with "all", "every", or "complete list" → Use Documentation tab

Do's ✅

  • ✅ Reference specific components by name
    ​    "Review the flow 'Lead_Assignment_Round_Robin'"

  • ✅ Provide context for your goal
    ​    "I need to prevent deletion of Opportunities with related invoices"

  • ✅ Include exact error messages
    ​    Copy/paste the full error text

  • ✅ Ask follow-ups in the same thread
    ​    Related questions benefit from conversation context

  • ✅ Limit scope to 5-10 components
    ​    "Review these 3 flows [list names] and compare their logic"

Don'ts ❌

  • ❌ Ask for exhaustive lists → Use Documentation tab

  • ❌ Analyze more than 10 components at once

  • ❌ Paste large external documents (keep to ~1 page)

  • ❌ Include hyperlinks (AI can't access external URLs)

  • ❌ Ask about specific user or record data (metadata only)

  • ❌ Mix unrelated topics in one thread → Start new conversation

Example: Good Conversation Flow

You:

"I'm getting a null pointer exception in OpportunityTrigger at line 67 when updating Stage. What's causing this?"

Swantide:

[Analyzes trigger and identifies issue]

You:

"How should I fix this to handle cases where Account relationship might be null?"

Swantide:

[Provides code fix with null checking]

You:

"Write a test class that covers this scenario"

Swantide:

[Generates test class]

When to Start a New Thread

New Thread

Same Thread

  • Switching to different topic/object

  • Moving to new project phase

  • Thread has 20+ messages

  • Follow-up questions on same topic

  • Iterating on code from earlier

  • Directly related to previous responses

Remember

Context is currency - The more specific you are, the better the response

Think delegation, not programming - You're briefing a smart collaborator

Start with Documentation, then ask AI - Browse components first, then dig into specific ones

Need the full library? See the complete Swantide Prompt Library for detailed examples across all SDLC phases.

Questions? Check the Swantide User Guide

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