---
id: con-prompting
schema: concept/1
layer: garden
status: established
name: Prompting
aka: ["writing a prompt", "asking AI", "giving instructions"]
summary: >
  Telling an AI what you want in plain words: the task, who it is for, what good looks like and any
  limits. Clear requests get better results than clever wording.
first_seen: "2022"
relations:
  builds_on: [con-large-language-model]
  evolved_from: []
  related: []
  parallels:
    - idea: "writing a clear request to a colleague"
      field: "workplace communication"
      note: "Goal, audience, deadline and format help a person as much as they help an AI."
    - idea: "a work order"
      field: "operations"
implementations: []
competencies: [cmp-describe-the-task, cmp-frame-the-outcome]
origin:
  kind: ai-proposed
  by: "seed agent 2026-10-16"
  rationale: "The first skill every learner uses; the base that context engineering, steering and examples extend."
---

A prompt is whatever you type or say to an AI to get it working. Prompting well depends on the same things that make any request clear: what you want, why, who it is for, what a good result looks like, and what to avoid.

To test a prompt, imagine handing it to a capable stranger with no background. Would they know what to do? If they would need to ask five questions first, the AI is guessing at those five answers. Adding a sentence of purpose ("this is for a board that skims") often helps more than adding instructions.

You also don't have to get it right in one go. A good first prompt followed by a few rounds of "closer, but shorter and less formal" is normal practice.

## Example

Weak: "Write a newsletter intro." Stronger: "Write a three-sentence intro for our monthly volunteer newsletter. Readers are retirees who skim on their phones. Thank them for the food drive (412 boxes) and point them to next month's sign-up."

## How it connects

- **Prompt engineering** was the early, trick-focused version of this skill.
- **Context engineering** widens it from the words you type to everything the AI can see.
- Adding **examples** and inviting **clarifying questions** are two quick upgrades.

## Try it

Take a prompt you used recently. Write down the one piece of background a stranger would most need. Add it, rerun, and compare the two answers.