# Prompt Engineering

> A technique for writing model instructions as versioned templates with fixed parameters and an evaluation for each change.

Record: `architecture:prompt-engineering`
Kind: technique
Layer: [Correctness Core](https://banes-lab.com/records/layer/correctness-core.md)
Severity: contextual
Scope: model-backed system, language-model system, application
Canonical: https://banes-lab.com/ontology#architecture-prompt-engineering

Listed in [Architecture principles](https://banes-lab.com/api/records/architecture.md), after [Model Safety](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/model-safety.md) and before [Model Drift Monitoring](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/model-drift-monitoring.md).

## Repair

- Refactored by: Centralize and Version Prompts
- Detected by: scattered prompt string literals
- Violated by: prompts inlined and duplicated across call sites
- Measured by: duplicated prompt count
- Enforced by: model design review

## Requires

- [Model Inference](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/model-inference.md)

## Reinforces

- [Model Evaluation](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/model-evaluation.md)
- [Reproducibility](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/reproducibility.md)

## Enables

- [Structured, Versioned Prompts](https://banes-lab.com/records/lexicon/structured-versioned-prompts.md)

## Conflicts with

- [Prompt Sprawl](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/prompt-sprawl.md)

## In tension with

- [Robustness](https://banes-lab.com/records/lexicon/robustness.md)

## Tensions

- [Prompt Engineering / Robustness](https://banes-lab.com/records/tension/prompt-engineering-robustness.md)

## Severity

- [contextual](https://banes-lab.com/records/vocabulary/severity-contextual.md)

## Category

- [Model Architecture](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture-category/model-architecture.md)

## Linked from

- [The author is probabilistic](https://banes-lab.com/software-architecture/scale/the-author-is-probabilistic.md)
- [Anti-patterns](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-anti-patterns.md)
- [Correctness / Determinism / Verification](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-correctness-determinism-verification.md)
- [Model Architecture](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-model-architecture.md)
- [Model Architecture](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/lexicon/lexicon-category-model-architecture.md)
- [Quality Attributes](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/lexicon/lexicon-category-quality-attributes.md)
- [Severity levels](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/schema/the-vocabulary-severity.md)
- [The resolutions](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/schema/the-resolutions.md)