Craft the foundational instruction layer that shapes model behaviour, tone, and capability boundaries for every conversation.
Five passes over the same idea, each from a different angle. Do them in order, or jump to whichever you need.
The system prompt is your most powerful lever over model behaviour. It sets persona, constraints, output format, and safety boundaries before the user says a word. Great system prompts are specific about what the model should and should not do, use examples where ambiguity exists, and are regularly tested against adversarial inputs.
