Core Concepts
Prompt
Also known as: prompts
In one line
The instruction you give an AI to tell it what to do.
What does Prompt mean?
A prompt is the natural-language input that steers an AI model. Good prompts specify the role, task, context, constraints, and output format. Prompt engineering is the discipline of writing prompts that produce reliable results.
A real-world example
"Act as a copywriter. Write 3 headlines for a plumber in Manchester, under 60 characters, using power words."
Related terms
Prompt Engineering
The craft of writing prompts that get accurate, useful answers from AI.
System Prompt
A hidden instruction that sets the AI's role, rules, and personality for the whole conversation.
Few-shot Prompting
Giving the AI a handful of examples in the prompt so it copies the pattern.
Chain-of-Thought (CoT)
Asking the AI to reason step-by-step before giving its final answer.