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