Prompt 101: Anatomy of a Great Prompt

What Is a Prompt?

A prompt is the set of instructions or input you provide to an AI model to guide its response. It serves as the bridge between your intent and the model’s output, framing:

• What the AI should “be” (its role or persona)
• What information it should consider (context or background)
• What task it needs to perform (the action or question)
• How you’d like the answer structured (format, length, style)

A clear, well-constructed prompt ensures the AI delivers relevant, accurate, and useful results—turning a generic “Tell me about X” into a precise query like:

You are a customer-service specialist. Given our product FAQ, summarize three common user questions and provide concise answers as bullet points.