Context and prompts
What must the model see to produce an acceptable answer?
Make the model's instructions, sources, history, tools, and output rules visible before tuning words or examples, so missing context is not mistaken for a prompt problem.
DECISION BRANCH
Do not begin with the tool name.
- ASK FIRST↓
Is the missing piece a fact, a standard, or model capability?
- IF↓
The result is verifiable and the failure cost is bounded, expand carefully.
- OTHERWISE✓
Narrow the action, keep the human handoff, and preserve recovery.
WORKED CASE
A contract summary keeps missing renewal terms in the annex.
The model receives a master agreement, two amendments, and an internal review policy, but file versions and precedence are unstated. The output looks complete while a renewal term comes from a superseded annex.
Keep lengthening the prompt with ‘be accurate’ and ‘do not omit anything,’ then place every file into one undifferentiated context.
Map the context first: current agreement, valid annexes, internal policy, user question, and output fields. Declare precedence, missing states, and the source location expected for each conclusion.
Test 12 agreements containing version conflicts. Amount, date, renewal, and termination fields point to valid clauses; uncertainty is explicitly held for review.
ENTRY & EXIT SIGNALS
Know when to enter—and when the decision is good enough to leave.
A topic is not an endless knowledge directory. Entry signals tell you whether the problem belongs at this layer. Exit signals decide whether to continue instead of substituting time spent reading for work completed.
- The same task omits different content across inputs
- Source conflicts produce unexplained choices
- A longer prompt does not reduce consequential failures
- Every output field maps to required context
- Source precedence, missing states, and format are declared
- Failure is no longer summarized as a bad prompt
2 PRACTICES
Build the judgment, make the artifact, then review it with real cases.
BOUNDARY
What this topic page will not do
This page makes inputs and instructions visible. It cannot supply facts that were never provided or replace source governance.