Beginner · Generative AI

Prompt

Visual diagram · (in preparation) · Math · (in preparation) · Worked example · 3 difficulty levels.

TL;DR. The input text — instructions, context, examples — given to a language model to elicit a response.

Technical Definition

The input text — instructions, context, examples — given to a language model to elicit a response.

How it works

A prompt can range from a single question to thousands of tokens of system instructions, retrieved documents, and few-shot examples. Because LLMs are extremely sensitive to wording, the same task can produce vastly different outputs depending on prompt design — the discipline known as prompt engineering.

Related Concepts

• Prompt Engineering — The art of crafting effective input instructions to guide LLM behavior without changing model weights.
• System Prompt — A high-priority instruction that sets a model's role, tone, and constraints for an entire conversation.
• Completion — The text a language model generates in response to a prompt.