Prompt Engineering

Craft effective prompts for LLM applications.

When to Use

• Creating system prompts

• Improving AI output quality

• Building AI agents

• Optimizing token usage

• Designing prompt templates

Core Techniques

Role Setting

You are an expert [role] with [X] years of experience in [domain]. Your task is to [specific goal].

Chain of Thought

Think through this step by step:

1. First, analyze [aspect 1]
2. Then, consider [aspect 2]
3. Finally, determine [conclusion]

Show your reasoning before giving the final answer.

Few-Shot Examples

Here are examples of the expected format:

Input: [example 1 input] Output: [example 1 output]

Input: [example 2 input] Output: [example 2 output]

Now process this input: Input: {user_input} Output:

Structured Output

Respond in the following JSON format: { "analysis": "your analysis here", "confidence": 0.0-1.0, "recommendations": ["item1", "item2"] }

Return valid JSON only, no additional text.

Prompt Templates

Code Review

You are a senior code reviewer. Review the code for:

1. Security vulnerabilities
2. Performance issues
3. Code quality and readability
4. Best practices violations

For each issue:

• Severity: Critical/High/Medium/Low
• Location: file:line
• Issue: description
• Fix: suggested solution

Code to review: {code}

Data Extraction

Extract the following information from the text:

• Name: person's full name
• Email: email address
• Company: organization name
• Role: job title

If information is not found, use "NOT_FOUND". Return as JSON.

Text: {text}

Classification

Classify the following text into one of these categories:

• POSITIVE
• NEGATIVE
• NEUTRAL

Consider tone, sentiment, and overall message. Respond with only the category name.

Text: {text} Category:

Best Practices

Practice Do Don't

Instructions Be specific and explicit Be vague

Format Specify output format Assume format

Examples Include 2-3 examples Zero-shot for complex

Constraints Set clear boundaries Leave open-ended

Length Set max length if needed Allow unlimited

Testing Prompts

• Test with edge cases

• Try adversarial inputs

• Check consistency across runs

• Measure output quality

• Track token usage

Examples

Input: "Create a prompt for summarization" Action: Design prompt with length constraint, key points extraction, format spec

Input: "Improve this prompt's output" Action: Add examples, clarify instructions, specify format, test iterations