Prompting Tips
Prompts are the instructions given to AI models. Output quality depends on how well they are written for each model.
Last updated
Prompts are the instructions given to AI models. Output quality depends on how well they are written for each model.
Last updated
Be specific and clear: Provide clear, explicit instructions with all the necessary details.
Provide context: Include any necessary background information for your question. AI models typically have broad knowledge so any specifics should be provided in the context.
Describe persona: Instruct AI to pretend to be a character or role, or take on a persona. This is useful shorthand to guide the model. Example: “You are a product manager”.
Set format expectations: Define the desired output structure (e.g., bullet points, markdown, JSON). Be aware that asking for too much structure has been shown to reduce reasoning ability.
Tip: Add “Use well-structured markdown” to your prompt to add headings, bullets, and more.
Use examples for clarity: Include a few examples in your instructions like pairs of representative inputs and outputs. This will help guide the model towards the type of answer you expect. Prompt engineers call this “few-shot prompting” — prompting without examples is called “one-shot prompting”.
General tip: Think of AI as a very capable intern.
Effective prompting will involve a combination of these strategies to get the most relevant and high-quality responses.