So, you launched a new chat with Claude Code about that Windows app you’ve been wanting to build. But rather than helping come up with a plan, Claude just galloped ahead, furiously coding before you even had a chance to sketch out a game plan.
That’s happened to me plenty of times, forcing me to spam the “stop” button so I can talk things over with Claude before it gets ahead of itself. In the meantime, I’m left to wonder what exactly got coded before I had a chance to hit the brakes.
Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex, and Google’s Antigravity coding apps all have “planning” modes designed to keep their AI coding agents from leaping into the fray before you’ve had a chance to weigh in. But sometimes those planning features don’t work as you’d expect, while other times you might simply forget to invoke them.
So, if you’re vibe coding and want to be sure Claude Code, Codex, or Antigravity don’t get ahead of themselves, try putting this at the beginning of your prompts:
Stay in pencil and paper mode
Or simply:
Pencil and paper mode
With those words prepended to your prompt, Claude Code, Codex, or whichever AI coding assistant you’re using will hold off and discuss your plans before diving into the actual work. (I’ve yet to encounter an AI chatbot that didn’t know what “pencil and paper mode” meant.)
Here’s how I used the pencil-and-paper-mode prompt in a recent Claude Code project I’ve been working on:
Stay in pencil and paper mode. What would be involved in removing the “counter” readout in the top header?
Now, you’d think simply saying “what would be involved” would keep the AI from forging ahead with a fix, but I’ve seen Claude Code and Codex start chugging away even with carefully couched “how would that work”-type prompt. “Pencil and paper mode” makes it explicit.
This prompt isn’t just for vibe coding, by the way. You can use it with any prompt where you’re asking the AI to do something, from drafting a letter to organizing your desktop folders.
A different prompt that does essentially the same thing while also making the AI ask you questions first is the fittingly named “ask clarifying questions first” prompt, or simply “ask me questions first.” But if you just want a quick analysis from Claude Code or Codex without a full-on interview, the pencil and paper mode prompt is a better fit.