Skillipedia

Skillipedia article

Prompt Engineering

Design prompts that guide LLMs toward accurate, consistent outputs.

Why it matters

Clear prompts reduce hallucinations and make models more reliable.

Core steps

  • Set explicit instructions and constraints at the top.
  • Provide structured examples that mirror the desired output.
  • Ask for intermediate reasoning with checklists when accuracy matters.
  • Keep deterministic formatting (JSON, markdown tables) for machine use.

Example layout

  1. Role: "You are a careful research assistant."
  2. Task: "Summarize the article in 3 bullets."
  3. Guardrails: "Cite source titles. If unsure, say 'uncertain'."
  4. Output: "Bullets only."