Prompt Engineering

System prompt is an agent’s “job description”. Principles: tone and style (save capitalization for critical constraints); structure (XML tags for semantics, Markdown for organization); focus on process, not a pile of rules (SOP with steps); detail business rules to an executable level (product manager must bring rules to unambiguity); few-shot examples when the result is hard to describe in words. Verification criterion: would a smart new employee understand what to do after reading this prompt?

Related: [Three rules of KV Cache friendliness], [Prompt injection]