A Claude Code prompt I’ve found useful recently (Jan 2026):
"[...request...]. Don't make any changes, just put a comment where you intend to make changes with the change you wish to make."
From there, I use the built-in diff commenting tool (Claude Code Desktop/Web) to give more feedback, then iterate or more on to the next step. Sometimes I've found this a lot more insightful than a plan, which can be a bit of a "wall of text" or veers into a quite literal "Here are all the code diffs I'll do".
It’s a specific trick for specific cases. I’ve found it handy when:
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It’s a complex frontend change. I usually want to give more nudges about unintended consequences, especially with CSS.
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I actually intend to make the change myself, but Claude is faster at navigating and narrowing down a large codebase. This saves a lot of splunking on my part and often makes the "actual" coding more pleasant.
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I want a heavier Opus-model conversation up front, then switch to Sonnet for back-and-forth coding, while keeping Sonnet very literal about the task (for example: implement these comments, don’t reinterpret the requirements).