It never changes the prompt's original meaning, adds unrequested features, removes existing guardrails, or lengthens the prompt without justification. See common-problems.md for before/after fix patterns and improvement-techniques.md for strengthening via CoT, few-shot, or guardrails.
Prompt Optimization
Skill for analyzing and improving existing prompts.
References
- common-problems.md - Load when: diagnosing a vague or ambiguous prompt — 5 before/after examples (vague instructions, missing context, undefined format, no error handling, weak emphasis)
- improvement-techniques.md - Load when: strengthening a prompt with Chain-of-Thought, few-shot examples, or reinforced guardrails
- scorecard-template.md - Load when: writing the before/after optimization report to hand off
Optimization Workflow
1. ANALYZE current prompt
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2. IDENTIFY issues
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3. APPLY corrections
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4. VALIDATE improvement
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5. DOCUMENT changes
Analysis Checklist
Clarity
- Unambiguous instructions?
- Clearly defined objective?
- Precise vocabulary?
Structure
- Well-delimited sections?
- Logical order?
- Clear hierarchy?
Completeness
- Output format defined?
- Error cases handled?
- Examples if needed?
Guardrails
- Explicit limits?
- Forbidden behaviors listed?
- Appropriate security?
For common problem patterns with before/after fixes, see common-problems.md. For techniques to strengthen a prompt (CoT, examples, guardrails), see improvement-techniques.md.
Forbidden
- Never change the original meaning of the prompt
- Never add unrequested features
- Never remove existing guardrails
- Never make the prompt longer without justification