Randy Pagels presents actionable recipes for using the Cognitive Verifier Pattern with GitHub Copilot, showing developers how to prompt Copilot to ask clarifying questions for cleaner, more accurate answers.

The Cognitive Verifier Pattern: Asking Before Answering with Copilot

Author: Randy Pagels

Understanding how to communicate with tools like GitHub Copilot can greatly enhance your coding experience. The Cognitive Verifier Pattern is a simple but powerful approach: it encourages Copilot to pause and clarify your intent before generating a solution, leading to better, more reliable outcomes.

Why Use the Cognitive Verifier Pattern?

Often, Copilot defaults to answering immediately—sometimes before your request is clear enough to guarantee a good solution. By prompting Copilot to ask clarifying questions first, you help it (and yourself) arrive at the right answer more efficiently.

Key Approaches

1️⃣ Ask Copilot to Verify Understanding

Prompt Copilot with:

Before answering, list 2–3 clarifying questions you would ask to make sure you fully understand my request.

Use this with big or open-ended tasks like “Build a dashboard” or “Add an integration.”

2️⃣ Combine with Reflection

Ask Copilot to consider risks and edge cases:

Before writing code, list questions that would help you understand potential edge cases or risks.

Best for complex logic or architectural changes.

3️⃣ Strengthen Requirements

When planning features or grooming backlogs, use:

Generate a few clarifying questions a developer should ask before implementing this feature request.

Helps to surface gaps in requirements before work begins.

4️⃣ Focus on the Right Context

Guide Copilot during code reviews or ambiguous refactorings:

Before suggesting improvements, ask questions about the purpose of this function and its expected behavior.

Perfect for unclear or legacy code.

Tips and Takeaways

  • Encourage Copilot to pause and clarify instead of rushing to code.
  • Applying the Cognitive Verifier Pattern can save time fixing misunderstandings later.
  • Clarity upfront leads to cleaner, more accurate outputs.

Summary:

The Cognitive Verifier Pattern helps turn GitHub Copilot into a true collaborator: not just outputting code, but actively working with you to refine understanding before execution.

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