prompt-creation

Prompt Creation covers Anthropic's official 9-element system-prompt structure (task context, tone, task description + rules, few-shot examples, input data, immediate task, precognition/scratchpad, output formatting, prefill) and the 6-level emphasis scale from "Please do X" up to "CRITICAL - ZERO TOLERANCE". It also covers the 8-step creation workflow from defining the objective through iterating after mental edge-case testing.

For RAG/retrieval-augmented prompts specifically, see rag-patterns.md; for prompts combining images with text (vision, screenshot-to-code, diagram understanding), see multimodal-prompting.md.

Prompt Creation

Skill for creating high-performance prompts following 2025 best practices and Anthropic conventions.

Documentation

• techniques.md - Structuring techniques (CoT, Few-shot, etc.)
• templates.md - Reusable templates
• rag-patterns.md - Load when: designing a RAG/retrieval-augmented prompt (chunking strategy, context assembly, citation injection, hallucination prevention)
• multimodal-prompting.md - Load when: writing a prompt that combines images/screenshots/diagrams with text (vision+text, screenshot-to-code, diagram understanding)

Anthropic Official Structure (9 Elements)

Each system prompt should cover these 9 aspects:

1. Task Context

# Task Context
You are an expert [ROLE] specializing in [DOMAIN].
Your goal is to [PRIMARY_OBJECTIVE].

2. Tone Context

# Tone
- Tone: [formal/casual/technical/friendly]
- Length: [concise/detailed/adaptive]
- Format: [prose/lists/tables/mixed]

3. Task Description + Rules

# Task Description
Here are important rules:
- Always [MANDATORY_BEHAVIOR]
- Never [FORBIDDEN_BEHAVIOR]
- If [CONDITION] then [ACTION]

If unsure, say "I don't have enough information to answer."

4. Examples (Few-shot)

# Examples

<example>
Input: [STANDARD_CASE_INPUT]
Output: [EXPECTED_OUTPUT]
</example>

<example>
Input: [EDGE_CASE_INPUT]
Output: [EXPECTED_OUTPUT]
</example>

5. Input Data

# Input Data
<document>
[USER_PROVIDED_CONTENT]
</document>

6. Immediate Task

# Immediate Task
Now, [SPECIFIC_ACTION] the above [document/code/data].

7. Precognition (Scratchpad)

# Precognition
First, in <scratchpad> tags, analyze the key points.
Then provide your final answer in <answer> tags.

8. Output Formatting

# Output Format

## Analysis
[Problem understanding]

## Solution
[Main response]

## Recommendations
[Additional suggestions]

9. Prefill (Assistant Turn)

# Prefill
<scratchpad>

Emphasis Techniques

In order of increasing effectiveness:

Level	Syntax	Usage
1	Please do X	Suggestion
2	You should do X	Recommendation
3	Always do X	Standard rule
4	YOU MUST do X	Strong rule
5	IMPORTANT: Do X	Critical rule
6	CRITICAL - ZERO TOLERANCE: Do X	Absolute rule

Creation Workflow

1. DEFINE the objective (1 sentence)
   ↓
2. IDENTIFY target audience
   ↓
3. LIST constraints
   ↓
4. CHOOSE techniques (CoT? Few-shot?)
   ↓
5. WRITE with 9-element structure
   ↓
6. ADD guardrails
   ↓
7. TEST mentally (edge cases)
   ↓
8. ITERATE if necessary

Forbidden

• Never create prompts without clear objective
• Never write ambiguous instructions
• Never forget error cases
• Never ignore target model context