Review Pattern Triggers

Pattern Triggers are compact, agreed words or phrases that invoke a larger reasoning pattern, workflow, or set of constraints without restating the complete instructions.

A Pattern Trigger is a short phrase a team has already defined together. Saying the phrase calls up the fuller method, checks, and constraints that everyone—including an AI agent—has access to.

Pattern Triggers let teams work with brevity without discarding shared meaning. They reduce repetitive instructions, but only when the underlying pattern is documented, understood, and available in the current context.

A team has defined “vertical slices” as one observable end-to-end behavior at a time, each with its own tests. Saying “implement this in vertical slices” invokes that agreed pattern without repeating the full procedure.

A Pattern Trigger is not a magic word, capitalization trick, or universal command. Without a shared definition and access to the pattern, it is only an ambiguous phrase.

A short handle for a shared way of working.

* [[prompt|Prompt]] * [[system-prompt|System Prompt]] * [[workflow|Workflow]] * [[prompt-engineering|Prompt Engineering]]

* Pattern Triggers is RS AI Learning Lab working vocabulary for a short phrase that invokes a documented team pattern. The sources below support the underlying shared-language practice and vertical-slice example; they do not establish the exact term. * [Martin Fowler, “Ubiquitous Language”](https://martinfowler.com/bliki/UbiquitousLanguage.html) — documents the older domain-driven-design practice of developing rigorous shared vocabulary. * [Matt Pocock, “skills” README](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills#2-the-agent-is-way-too-verbose) — presents a contemporary shared-language practice for communicating dense ideas with precise terms. * [Matt Pocock, “TDD” skill](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/engineering/tdd/SKILL.md) — provides “vertical slices” as a current example of a short phrase linked to a documented working pattern.

* Compare [[prompt|Prompt]], [[system-prompt|System Prompt]], [[workflow|Workflow]], and [[prompt-engineering|Prompt Engineering]] to place Pattern Triggers in the surrounding system. * Follow the cited source material above for the method, standard, or research context behind this draft.