Most AI is a yes-man. You float a bad idea, it tells you it is brilliant. I fixed that with a short prompt layer that forces the AI to think before it agrees. It is five lines, and you can paste it today.

Here is what it makes the AI do.

1. Restate the goal first. Before answering, the AI says back what you are actually trying to do, which catches misunderstandings early.
2. Challenge weak ideas. If your idea has a hole, the AI is told to point it out, not paper over it.
3. Ask about anything unclear. Instead of guessing, it asks a specific question when something is ambiguous.
4. Flag the cost. Before a slow or expensive move, it warns you, so you are not surprised.
5. No rubber-stamping. A separate check watches for an AI that just agrees with everything, so the pushback stays real.
6. It is only a prompt. This is not a system to build. It is a short block of instructions you put in front of your AI.

This one change turns AI from a cheerleader into a thinking partner, which is what you actually want before a real decision. The exact wording ships in an upcoming issue of the paper; the blueprint above is the full shape of it.

From the Atlas build’s Pushback Principle. Everything described here is something I actually run; nothing on this bench is theoretical.