Reference · How-to · ~8 min
How to debug a bad AI answer
Treat debugging like a checklist — don't blame the model until you know which stage failed.
Treat debugging like a checklist — don't blame the model until you know which stage failed.
Steps
1. **Re-read the prompt** — Was the task ambiguous? Missing context?
2. **Check the facts** — Hallucination vs misread input?
3. **For RAG bots** — Inspect retrieved chunks first (wrong doc = retrieval bug)
4. **Retry** — Same prompt twice; if answers swing wildly, temperature may be high
5. **Simplify** — Strip prompt to minimal version; add pieces back one at a time
6. **Ask the model** — "What assumptions did you make? What are you unsure about?"
Copy-paste debug prompt
My question: [original]
Your answer: [paste answer]
Which parts might be wrong or unsupported?
List assumptions you made.
What would you need to answer confidently?RAG-specific
If citations exist, open each source — does the answer match the cited paragraph?