Saving good prompts
What it is
A prompt is the message you send your AI app. A prompt that works is often built up over several messages and corrections. Your AI app can rewrite the wording that worked as a single prompt. A single prompt would have got the reply you wanted without the earlier chat.
Save the single prompt in a note you own. That means a note in your notes app or a document, kept by you, not an AI app. Beside the saved prompt, write one line on what the prompt is for and what a good reply looks like.
Suppose a reply to a customer took three tries, and you saved the single prompt, with "the customer" for the name. Two weeks later you type a fresh prompt from memory and the reply is stiff. So you paste the saved prompt into any AI app and add the name.
Tips
- When a prompt finally works, ask your AI app to rewrite it as a single prompt, because the wording that worked is often a first try plus your corrections.
- Save each single prompt in a note you own with the line beside it, because the note works in any app and that line is what you check replies against.
- When a saved prompt gives worse replies, paste it into a new chat, compare the reply with the line beside it, and reword it in your note, because apps change.
Try it
- In a chat from this week where a job took a few tries and you liked the final reply, send this in that chat: "Write one prompt that would have got this reply first time, with no need for the earlier messages."
- Copy that prompt into a note you own, then swap any names or numbers in it for labels, plain words such as "the customer", so private details stay out of the note.
- Under it, write the line: what the prompt is for, and what a good reply looks like.
- Open a new chat, paste the prompt from the note with the real names put back, and read the reply against the one you liked.
The new reply should be close to the one you liked, not identical, because your AI app words its reply a little differently each time you send the same prompt. If the two replies look far apart, send the same prompt once more before you judge it.
If the new reply leaves out something you liked, the earlier messages carried it, not the prompt. Add the missing part to the prompt in your note, then paste again.
A reply close to the one you liked means the saved prompt works from the note alone, without the old chat.
No chat from this week? Use a job you repeat, such as a monthly customer reply, correct it once, then follow the steps.
Risks
- A saved prompt can carry private details, such as a customer's name, and the company that runs your AI app receives what you paste. Swap the details for labels, and type the real detail when you paste.
- A saved prompt can get worse replies than it once did, because apps, and the AI behind them, change over the months. Paste the prompt into a new chat, compare the reply with the line beside the prompt, and reword the prompt in your note.
- A pile of saved prompts you never open stops helping, because you cannot find the one you want. Keep the few you reuse, begin the line beside each prompt with the job it does, and delete the other prompts.
- A feature for saving prompts inside one AI app keeps your prompt in that app. The app can change or remove the feature, so keep a copy of the prompt in a note you own as well.
Why it matters
A prompt that worked is work you have already done once. Saved in a note you own, it pastes into any AI app again, so you do not do the work twice.