Prompt

Also known as: Prompting, Input, Query

In one sentence

The text instruction you give to an AI model to get a response. The quality and specificity of your prompt directly determines the quality of the AI's output.

Explain like I'm 12

A prompt is what you type into a chatbot like ChatGPT. Think of it like ordering food—if you just say 'give me food' you might get anything, but if you say 'I'd like a grilled chicken sandwich with no mayo' you get exactly what you want.

In context

Every interaction with an AI starts with a prompt. It can be as simple as a question ('What is photosynthesis?') or as detailed as a multi-paragraph instruction with examples, constraints, and formatting requirements. Professional prompt engineers craft prompts that include context about who the AI should act as, what format the response should take, and what tone to use. The skill of writing effective prompts is called prompt engineering.

Related Guides

Learn more about Prompt in these guides:

Advanced Prompt Optimization

Advanced

Systematically optimize prompts: automated testing, genetic algorithms, prompt compression, and performance tuning.

7 min read

Prompting 201: Structured Prompts & JSON Output

Intermediate

Advanced prompting: structured formats, JSON output, few-shot learning, chain-of-thought, and prompt templates for production.

11 min read

Monitoring AI Systems in Production