Prompt Architecture and Examples - Claude Cheat Sheet

Building a prompt as six named, XML-tagged blocks - role, task, context, input, output spec, constraints - and ordering them for long documents. Then steering with examples: when to switch from rules, how to choose them, and the accidental patterns to catch.

On the sheet:

- Anatomy of a structured prompt: the six named, XML-tagged blocks

- Why structure beats wording: what a paragraph cannot do: weight, edit, boundary

- The role block: naming a stance, and the failure it chooses

- Tag the parts, XML-style: why tags beat headings

- Output spec, and grounding in quotes: specify the shape, and extract before you answer

- Rules out, examples in: when to switch from rules to demonstrations

- Relevant, diverse, structured: choosing the examples that steer

- Tag the example set: nesting examples, then pointing at the real work

- Accidental patterns and counter-examples: the pattern you taught by accident, and the fix

Two A4 pages, printed front and back, sized to print once and keep beside you while you work. Written in short sentences and plain English, for readers whose first language is not English and clearer for everyone else because of it.

It pairs with the Prompt Architecture and Examples That Steer books, so you can learn each idea in full and then revise it here in two pages.

Every product fact on this sheet - every plan, price, limit, setting and menu - was checked against Anthropic's own published documentation before the file was made. This is an independent study guide, not affiliated with, authorised by, or endorsed by Anthropic. Instant PDF download. By M.R. Sterling.