Prompt Creation

Skill for creating high-performance prompts following 2025 best practices and Anthropic conventions.

Documentation

• techniques.md - Structuring techniques (CoT, Few-shot, etc.)

• templates.md - Reusable templates

Anthropic Official Structure (9 Elements)

Each system prompt should cover these 9 aspects:

1. Task Context

Task Context

You are an expert [ROLE] specializing in [DOMAIN]. Your goal is to [PRIMARY_OBJECTIVE].

2. Tone Context

Tone

• Tone: [formal/casual/technical/friendly]
• Length: [concise/detailed/adaptive]
• Format: [prose/lists/tables/mixed]

3. Task Description + Rules

Task Description

Here are important rules:

• Always [MANDATORY_BEHAVIOR]
• Never [FORBIDDEN_BEHAVIOR]
• If [CONDITION] then [ACTION]

If unsure, say "I don't have enough information to answer."

4. Examples (Few-shot)

Examples

<example> Input: [STANDARD_CASE_INPUT] Output: [EXPECTED_OUTPUT] </example>

<example> Input: [EDGE_CASE_INPUT] Output: [EXPECTED_OUTPUT] </example>

5. Input Data

Input Data

<document> [USER_PROVIDED_CONTENT] </document>

6. Immediate Task

Immediate Task

Now, [SPECIFIC_ACTION] the above [document/code/data].

7. Precognition (Scratchpad)

Precognition

First, in <scratchpad> tags, analyze the key points. Then provide your final answer in <answer> tags.

8. Output Formatting

Output Format

Analysis

[Problem understanding]

Solution

[Main response]

Recommendations

[Additional suggestions]

9. Prefill (Assistant Turn)

Prefill

<scratchpad>

Emphasis Techniques

In order of increasing effectiveness:

Level Syntax Usage

1 Please do X

Suggestion

2 You should do X

Recommendation

3 Always do X

Standard rule

4 YOU MUST do X

Strong rule

5 IMPORTANT: Do X

Critical rule

6 CRITICAL - ZERO TOLERANCE: Do X

Absolute rule

Creation Workflow

1. DEFINE the objective (1 sentence) ↓
2. IDENTIFY target audience ↓
3. LIST constraints ↓
4. CHOOSE techniques (CoT? Few-shot?) ↓
5. WRITE with 9-element structure ↓
6. ADD guardrails ↓
7. TEST mentally (edge cases) ↓
8. ITERATE if necessary

Forbidden

• Never create prompts without clear objective

• Never write ambiguous instructions

• Never forget error cases

• Never ignore target model context