Happy path
The normal route through a feature where everything goes right: valid input, no errors, no surprises.
What it is
The happy path is the ideal journey: the user fills in the form correctly, the payment goes through, the email arrives. It's what gets built and demoed first.
The risk is stopping there. Real users mistype, lose connection, double-click, and arrive with no data. Those are the unhappy paths and edge cases.
A useful prompt habit: describe the happy path, then add "and here's what happens when it doesn't go right."
How to ask for it
“Build the checkout.”
“Build checkout. Happy path: cart → shipping → payment → confirmation page and email. Also handle a declined card (stay on payment with a clear message), an out-of-stock item (remove it with a notice), and a dropped connection (don't charge twice).”
"Build the checkout" usually yields only the happy path; naming it and listing the unhappy ones gets both built.
You've seen this in
- PProduct demos
- TTutorial walkthroughs
- TThe first version of almost any feature