A practical prompt-writing framework

A good prompt reduces ambiguity by explaining what you need, what information matters and how the result should be checked.

Start with the task

Say whether you need an explanation, comparison, debugging help, practice questions, review or transformation.

Add context

Include the code, audience, dataset description, job description or other material needed for the task.

State constraints

Examples include a software version, database engine, maximum length, required sections, allowed libraries or a requirement to use only supplied facts.

Specify the output

Ask for a checklist, table, step-by-step explanation, corrected code, quiz or short summary when that format helps.

Ask for verification

Ask the assistant to state assumptions, flag missing information and distinguish facts from suggestions.