Fundamentals

Prompt

A prompt is the input text you provide to an LLM to elicit a response. Prompts range from simple questions to complex instructions with examples and context. The quality and specificity of a prompt significantly affects the model's output. Good prompts are clear, provide sufficient context, and sometimes include examples (few-shot prompting). Poorly constructed prompts often result in irrelevant, inaccurate, or misaligned responses. Prompt engineering—the art of crafting effective prompts—is a critical skill for working with LLMs.