Ship an AI feature without burning your margin

  1. Define the single job the model will do
    1 hour

    Make the job small enough to test. A good job has one input type, one output shape, one place in the UI, and fails visibly if it widens.

    Write it on one line: verb + object + constraint. Then fill the contract:

    • Input: type, length limit, source — e.g., user ticket text, max 2 000 characters from helpdesk API
    • Output: format, fields, length — e.g., JSON with summary 2–3 sentences and 1–3 tags from fixed list
    • Placement: where it appears and who sees it — e.g., inside ticket view, agent-only, never customer-facing
    • Why model: what makes rules fail — paraphrase, typos, missing keywords — and why template code cannot cover it

    Keep the sentence and contract in one doc — README or spec — so later phases can copy it verbatim.