All terms
Glossary
Prompt engineering
Deliberately phrasing instructions to a language model so that results are reliable rather than accidentally good.
What works is usually simple: name the task clearly, specify the output format, provide examples, and say what to do when unsure.
The rest is craft and measurement, not secret knowledge.
How you notice it
- Results vary for the same task.
- The response format is not reliable.
- Prompts live scattered across the code.
Frequently asked
Do prompts belong in version control?
Yes, absolutely. A prompt is program logic in prose: it determines the outcome, changes often and must be revertible. Prompts that only live in a tool interface become untraceable after the third revision.