Prompting Skills playbook/Module 1 · Foundations

Day 02 / 100 · Foundations · How models read prompts

It reads everything. Literally.

A model predicts the most likely next words from all the text in front of it. It can't see your inbox, your policies or yesterday's meeting.

Only what's on the page

Rule 01

No hidden knowledge of your company, customers or projects unless you paste it, attach it or it's in the tool's memory.

THE FIX

Include the facts it needs. Don't assume it knows.

Every word is a signal

Rule 02

Your tone, examples and even your typos get echoed back. Casual prompt, casual answer.

THE FIX

Write the prompt in the style you want back.

Order matters

Rule 03

With long material, the model handles it best when the document comes first and your question comes last.

THE FIX

Paste the source, then ask.

Plausible isn't true

Rule 04

It generates what sounds right. When a fact is missing, it can fill the gap with a confident guess.

THE FIX

Give it the facts, then check the ones that matter.

Sources: Anthropic ↗ · OpenAI Help Center ↗

If it's not in the prompt, it's a guess.