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Prompting & context engineering

Examples and exemplars

Also called: few-shot prompting, show don't tell

DEFINITION

Including one or more examples of the input-and-desired-output so the model can copy the pattern. Often called few-shot prompting.

WHY IT MATTERS

A single good example frequently beats a paragraph of instructions for style, structure, and edge cases. It's the most reliable way to get consistent output at scale.

COMMONLY CONFUSED WITH

Fine-tuning. Examples in the prompt steer one session's output; fine-tuning changes the model itself.