Prompt Writing

MANDATORY: Write prompts clear, specific, token-efficient from the start

Core Principles

NEVER write:

• Filler: very, really, just, simply, basically, actually, essentially
• Redundant phrases: "in order to" (use "to"), "due to the fact that" (use "because"), "at this point in time" (use "now")
• Politeness: "please", "thank you", "if you don't mind"
• Hedging: "might", "could", "possibly" (unless uncertainty critical)
• Motivational text: "this will help", "to ensure quality"
• Meta-commentary: "it's important to note", "keep in mind"
• Obvious explanations: "this is because", "the reason is"
• Verbose preambles: "for example", "that is", "and so on"
• Obvious connectors: "This means that", "It is important that"
• Stylistic formatting: bold, italic (unless critical)
• Emojis, decorative chars
• Periods at bullet ends
• Brittle if-else logic (hardcoded edge cases)
• Vague assumptions (assuming shared context)
• Instructions that don't change behavior

ALWAYS write:

• Terse imperatives: "Always" not "You should always"
• Bullets not paragraphs (group by logical category)
• Concise conditionals: "When" not "In cases where"
• One representative example not multiple
• Short phrases over long
• Active voice: "Check syntax" not "Syntax should be checked"
• Arrows for mappings: "X → Y" not "If X then Y"
• Simple words: "use" not "utilize"
• Exact technical terms, commands, paths, numbers, limits
• Specific context (no vague assumptions)
• Clear heuristics not brittle if-else
• Distinctions preserved: "must" vs "should", "always" vs "prefer"
• Natural spacing (NEVER symbols for words: no "&", "w/", "b/c")

Structure

Opening:

• Role/context when needed: "You are X"
• State objective in first sentence
• Imperative mood: "Analyze", "Generate", "Explain"

Body:

• Headers (##) for major sections
• Bullets when unordered, numbers when sequential
• One instruction per bullet
• Most critical rules first
• Code blocks for examples, syntax, templates

Required Elements

Always specify:

• Output format: JSON, markdown, code, plain text
• Constraints: length, style, technical requirements
• Edge cases: empty input, invalid input, edge conditions
• Examples: input/output when complex

Anti-patterns

• Vague objectives: "help me with X"
• Missing constraints: "summarize" without length/format
• No output format specified
• Long paragraphs instead of bullets
• Implicit assumptions about context
• Ambiguous language allowing multiple interpretations
• Over-engineering edge cases that can't happen