Prompts Glossary

Browse 26 prompts terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

26 Prompts Terms

AI Prompt
The instruction, context, examples, or input text provided to an AI model to shape its output. Prompt design affects quality heavily, especially in systems...
AI Template
A reusable template for prompts, workflows, or outputs that standardizes how AI is invoked across similar use cases. AI templates help reduce duplication and...
Instruction Hierarchy
The ordering of which instructions take precedence when multiple sources of guidance are present, such as system, developer, tool, and user instructions....
LLM Prompt
The prompt used for a large language model, including instructions, examples, formatting constraints, and context. LLM prompts are often versioned and tuned...
Prefix
The starting portion of a prompt, sequence, or context that comes before what the model is asked to generate or complete. Prefixes are important in generation...
Prompt Attack
An adversarial attempt to manipulate an AI system through crafted input so it ignores instructions, reveals restricted information, or behaves in unintended...
Prompt Cache
A cache that stores prompt-related computations or repeated prompt results so equivalent requests can be handled more cheaply and quickly. Prompt caches are...
Prompt Compression
The practice of reducing prompt length while preserving the instructions or context needed for good performance. Prompt compression helps with latency, cost,...
Prompt Design
The work of structuring instructions, examples, formatting, and context so an AI model behaves as intended. Prompt design is both a product and engineering...
Prompt Evaluation
The process of measuring how well a prompt performs across relevant tasks, edge cases, and quality criteria. Prompt evaluation is important because prompts...
Prompt Format
The structure and layout of a prompt, including sections, delimiters, examples, and formatting conventions. Prompt format can affect how clearly the model...
Prompt Guard
A safeguard or validation layer intended to protect prompts or detect dangerous prompt conditions such as injection, policy violations, or malformed context....
Prompt Library
A shared collection of reusable prompts, templates, or prompt components maintained for consistency across teams or products. Prompt libraries make it easier...
Prompt Management
The operational practice of organizing, versioning, reviewing, testing, and deploying prompts in a controlled way. Prompt management becomes important once...
Prompt Optimization
Improving prompt performance for quality, consistency, cost, or latency through iteration, testing, and measurement. Prompt optimization often yields large...
Prompt Pipeline
A pipeline that assembles, transforms, validates, and sends prompts as part of a larger AI workflow. Prompt pipelines often include template filling, retrieval...
Prompt Registry
A registry used to store, version, and track prompts and related metadata such as owners, evaluations, and rollout status. Prompt registries help teams treat...
Prompt Rewriting
The act of rewriting a prompt to improve clarity, control behavior, reduce ambiguity, or adapt to a different model or workflow. Prompt rewriting is common...
Prompt Safety
The practice of designing prompts and prompt-handling systems so they are resistant to misuse, injection, leakage, or unsafe behavior. Prompt safety overlaps...
Prompt Strategy
The overall approach used to design and apply prompts across a task or product, including instruction order, examples, tool use, and fallback behavior. Prompt...
Prompt Suffix
The portion of a prompt or sequence that comes after some focal gap or inserted content, often discussed in editing or fill-in-the-middle tasks. Suffixes help...
Prompt System
The full system of prompt templates, assembly logic, versioning, and operational controls used to drive AI behavior in a product. The term emphasizes that...
Prompt Testing
The practice of testing prompts against known cases, edge conditions, and regression suites to verify behavior before release. Prompt testing is necessary...
Prompt Token
A token consumed by the prompt portion of a model request, including system instructions, examples, user content, and retrieved context. Prompt token counts...
Prompt Versioning
The practice of assigning explicit versions to prompts so changes can be tracked, compared, rolled back, and audited. Prompt versioning is especially important...
System Message
A high-priority instruction message used to define the assistant's role, rules, or behavior before user input is considered. System messages are often used to...

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