Prompting - Meta-Prompting & Template System

Invoke when: meta-prompting, template generation, prompt optimization, programmatic prompt composition, creating dynamic agents, generating structured prompts from data.

Overview

The Prompting skill owns ALL prompt engineering concerns:

•Standards - Anthropic best practices, Claude 4.x patterns, empirical research
•Templates - Handlebars-based system for programmatic prompt generation
•Tools - Template rendering, validation, and composition utilities
•Patterns - Reusable prompt primitives and structures

Workflow Routing

Workflow	Trigger	File
RenderTemplate	"render template", "generate from template"	CLI tool
ValidateTemplate	"validate template", "check template syntax"	CLI tool
ApplyStandards	"review prompt", "optimize prompt"	Reference Standards.md

Core Components

1. Standards.md

Complete prompt engineering documentation based on:

•Anthropic's Claude 4.x Best Practices (November 2025)
•Context engineering principles
•1,500+ academic papers on prompt optimization

2. Templates/

Five core primitives for programmatic prompt generation:

Primitive	Purpose
ROSTER	Agent/skill definitions from data
VOICE	Personality calibration settings
STRUCTURE	Multi-step workflow patterns
BRIEFING	Agent context handoff
GATE	Validation checklists

3. Tools/

RenderTemplate.ts - Core rendering engine

bash

bun run $PAI_DIR/skills/Prompting/Tools/RenderTemplate.ts \
  --template Primitives/Briefing.hbs \
  --data path/to/data.yaml \
  --output path/to/output.md

ValidateTemplate.ts - Template syntax checker

bash

bun run $PAI_DIR/skills/Prompting/Tools/ValidateTemplate.ts \
  --template Primitives/Briefing.hbs

Examples

Example 1: Generate agent roster

code

User: "Generate a roster from my agents.yaml"
-> Uses RenderTemplate with Roster.hbs
-> Outputs formatted agent definitions

Example 2: Create briefing for research agent

code

User: "Brief the research agent on this task"
-> Uses RenderTemplate with Briefing.hbs
-> Generates complete agent context handoff

Example 3: Validate template syntax

code

User: "Check my new template for errors"
-> Uses ValidateTemplate
-> Reports syntax issues, missing variables

Best Practices

•Separation of Concerns - Templates for structure, YAML for content
•Keep Templates Simple - Business logic in TypeScript, not templates
•DRY Principle - Extract repeated patterns into partials
•Validate Before Rendering - Check all required variables exist

References

•Standards.md - Complete prompt engineering guide
•Templates/README.md - Template system overview
•Tools/RenderTemplate.ts - Implementation details