Prompt Craft
Two worked examples teach a format that a page of rules will not
Rules describe the edges of what you will accept, examples describe the middle of it, and for anything with…
· 4 min read
Prompt Craft
What makes an instruction work twice, not once.
20 articles · page 1 of 2
Prompt Craft
An instruction that only works once was underspecified, not unlucky
The gap between a prompt that produced something good and a prompt you can rely on is a list of decisions you left open without noticing.
By Adrian Novak · · 4 min read
Prompt Craft
Saying what you do not want is the half of the instruction people leave out
Describing the output you want narrows the field far less than it feels like it does, and the difference is…
· 4 min read
Prompt Craft
Describe the shape of the answer before you describe the task
Output structure is the single constraint that decides the most about what comes back, and it is usually…
· 4 min read
Prompt Craft
Asking the tool to play a role moves the vocabulary more than the judgement
Persona framing is real and it does something, but what it mostly does is select a register, and mistaking…
· 3 min read
Prompt Craft
Ask for the format your next step needs, not the one that looks tidy
Output that a person finds readable and output that a program can consume are different requests, and…
· 4 min read
Prompt Craft
Give it the brief, not the archive
Supplying background is a selection problem, and the instinct to include everything relevant produces worse…
· 3 min read
Prompt Craft
A constraint stated once behaves like a suggestion
Requirements that hold for two or three exchanges and then quietly lapse are not being disobeyed, they are…
· 4 min read
Prompt Craft
Making it ask you questions costs less than three failed attempts
A request to list the ambiguities before starting work turns the silent guesses that ruin a first draft…
· 3 min read
Prompt Craft
Two requirements that conflict get reconciled without telling you
Most prompts contain a quiet contradiction, the resolution is never announced, and the difference between a…
· 3 min read
Prompt Craft
A prompt written for someone else has to carry the context you never typed
An instruction that works reliably in your own hands tends to fail in a colleague’s, because most of what…
· 3 min read
Prompt Craft
Ask for options that differ along an axis, or you get one idea five times
Requesting alternatives without saying what should vary produces near-identical drafts, because nothing in…
· 4 min read