The original title is: "Why AI coding agents over-engineer simple requests — and the one prompt constraint that stops it"

Short summary

An AI coding agent repeatedly over-engineered a simple email-automation request, proposing multi-phase architectures, dashboards, and retry mechanisms when only a 15-line function was needed. After three reframing rounds, the author identified that the agent defaults to consultant-mode because its training rewards completeness of options. The fix: prepend a prompt constraint demanding the minimal version first, with no matrices, phases, or extensions until explicitly requested.

• •AI agents over-engineer simple requests because training rewards option-completeness
• •Three reframing rounds were needed to reduce a platform proposal to a 15-line function
• •Fix: prepend 'propose the minimal version in fifteen lines, no matrix, no phases, extensions after' to prompts

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