# prompt-engineering

Advanced prompt engineering techniques including Anthropic's official best practices and research-backed persuasion principles.

**Includes:**

- **Few-Shot Learning** - Teach by showing examples
- **Chain-of-Thought** - Step-by-step reasoning
- **Prompt Optimization** - Systematic improvement through testing
- **Template Systems** - Reusable prompt structures
- **System Prompt Design** - Global behavior and constraints

**Persuasion Principles (from [Prompting Science Report 3](https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00614)):**

| Principle | Use For | Example |
|-----------|---------|---------|
| **Authority** | Discipline enforcement | "YOU MUST", "No exceptions" |
| **Commitment** | Accountability | "Announce skill usage", "Choose A, B, or C" |
| **Scarcity** | Preventing procrastination | "IMMEDIATELY", "Before proceeding" |
| **Social Proof** | Establishing norms | "Every time", "X without Y = failure" |
| **Unity** | Collaboration | "our codebase", "we both want quality" |

**Key Concepts:**

- **Context Window Management** - The window is a shared resource; be concise
- **Degrees of Freedom** - Match specificity to task fragility
- **Progressive Disclosure** - Start simple, add complexity when needed
