It Will Happen. That’s Fine.
Every website breaks sometimes while it’s being built. Professional developers deal with it every single day.
Things breaking doesn’t mean you did something wrong. It just means it’s time for a clear report.
You don’t need to know how to fix it. You just need to describe it well. (Sound familiar? It’s the 99% rule again.)
The Three-Line Bug Report
A bug (a mistake that makes something not work) is fixed fastest when you tell Claude three things:
- What you did. “I clicked Gallery in the menu.”
- What you expected. “The gallery page.”
- What happened instead. “A page that says Not Found.”
Then add the evidence:
- The exact error message, copied and pasted. Not “some error”, the actual words.
- A screenshot of what you see. Paste it straight into the chat.
Find the Cause First
Here’s a trick that makes a big difference. Ask Claude to find the cause before fixing anything:
When I click Gallery in the menu, I expected the gallery page, but I get a page saying "Not Found". Screenshot attached. Before changing anything, find out why this happens and explain it to me simply.Why wait before fixing? Because a fix without a cause is a guess. Claude might change three things hoping one of them works, and quietly break something else along the way.
When it explains the cause first, you can check that it makes sense. Then:
That makes sense. Go ahead and fix it.And then, of course: go look. Click Gallery again yourself.
Where to Find Error Messages
Errors show up in a couple of places:
| Where | How to see it |
|---|---|
| In the terminal | Red text in Claude’s window, or in the window running the preview. Copy and paste it. |
| In the browser | Press F12 and click the Console tab. Errors show up in red. Copy them, or take a screenshot. |
| On the page itself | A blank page, a missing picture, or a “Not found”. Screenshot it. |
Tip: “The console in my browser shows this error:” followed by the pasted error is one of the most useful sentences you can send.
When a Fix Makes It Worse
Sometimes a fix goes sideways and things get more broken. Don’t keep piling fixes on top. Go back instead. You have two undo buttons:
| Undo button | Reaches back | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Esc Esc | Through this chat | “The last change or two made it worse.” |
| Save points | To any day, any chat | “It was working yesterday, and now it’s not.” |
To go back to a save point, just ask:
Something broke since this morning. Show me the recent save points, and go back to the last one where the gallery worked.This is exactly why the habit of saving after every working step matters. The more save points you have, the less you ever lose.
When Claude Goes in Circles
Sometimes Claude tries a fix, it doesn’t work, it tries again, and again… and you can see it’s stuck.
When that happens:
- Press Esc to stop it.
- Go back to your last good save point, if things got messy.
/clearfor a fresh whiteboard. A cluttered chat is often why it got stuck.- Describe the problem again, fresh, with your three lines and the evidence.
A fresh start with a clear report beats the tenth attempt in a messy chat.
Try it
The next time something on your site doesn’t work the way you expect, write the three-line bug report, add a screenshot, and ask Claude to explain the cause before it fixes anything.
See an example prompt
I did: [what you clicked or tried]
I expected: [what should have happened]
I got: [what actually happened]
Here's a screenshot. Before changing anything, explain what's causing this, in simple words.