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Prompt
A prompt is the instruction a language model receives — it defines role, tone, allowed actions, and provides the context for the response.
Also known as: System Prompt
In detail
Prompts are business logic in text form. We treat them like code: versioned in Git, with tests, reviews, and canary rollouts.
A good system prompt defines:
- Who is the agent (persona, tone)?
- What's allowed, what isn't?
- Which tools are available?
- What happens on uncertainty (escalation)?
- Examples of desired behaviour
Related terms
- AI agentAn AI agent is a program built on a language model that completes tasks on its own: it understands a request, plans steps, calls tools, and responds with a result instead of just text.
- HallucinationA hallucination is a plausible-sounding but factually wrong answer from a language model — e.g. a made-up quote or an invented software feature.
- AI agentAn AI agent is a program built on a language model that completes tasks on its own: it understands a request, plans steps, calls tools, and responds with a result instead of just text.