# Overview
The approach for creating effective instructions (i.e., 'prompts') for [[Large Language Models (LLMs)]]. There are two primary principles:
- Write clear and specific instructions
- Give the model time to think
# Key Considerations
## Core Principles
### Write Clear and Specific Instructions
- Use delimiters to clearly notate different portions of the prompt (``, ', |, etc.)
- This can also help prevent prompt injection
- Ask for structured output (e.g., ask for the response in JSON)
- Ask the model to check whether certain conditions are met
- Few-shot prompting - provide examples of a successful reply to the prompt
### Give the Model Time to Think
- Divide the prompts into linear steps for the model to complete
- Instruct the model to work out its own solution before rushing to a conclusion
## Reducing [[hallucinations]]
Ask the model to first find relevant information from an article, then answer the question based on the relevant information.
# Implementation Details
## General Tips and Tricks
- [Build the perfect prompt every time. Prompt Included : r/ChatGPTCoding](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTCoding/comments/1h8jozp/build_the_perfect_prompt_every_time_prompt/) - **Prompt Chain:**
- Analyze the following prompt idea: *insert prompt idea*
~Rewrite the prompt for clarity and effectiveness
~Identify potential improvements or additions
~Refine the prompt based on identified improvements
~Present the final optimized prompt
(Each prompt is separated by ~, you can pass that prompt chain directly into the [Agentic Worker](https://www.agenticworkers.com/library/esmo-kmwed-optimize-and-refine-a-custom-prompt) to automatically queue it all together)
- [[Zero-shot Classification]] vs. [[Few-shot Classification]]
## Prompts for Summarizing
Can use word, sentence, or character counts to limit the length of the summary.
## Prompts for Inferring
Inferring covers tasks that require the model to understand the context of a text, such as sentiment, named entity recognition, zero shot learning
## Prompts for Transforming
Transformations include:
- Addressing spelling mistakes
- Changing languages
- Changing tone of the message
## Prompts for Expanding
For example, turning reviews into customer service e-mails.
## Prompts for Chatbots
Use the 'roles' concept to tell the system what it is.
# Useful Links
# Related Topics
## Reference
#### Working Notes
#### Sources
- [ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers - DeepLearning.AI](https://learn.deeplearning.ai/courses/chatgpt-prompt-eng/lesson/1/introduction)
- [Prompt Engineering Guide | Prompt Engineering Guide\<!-- --\>](https://www.promptingguide.ai/)