AI Glossary · Last reviewed May 2026
Prompt Engineering
Hand-written by a real person. Reviewed against current practice in May 2026.
"
Definition
Writing the instructions to a model in a way that consistently produces useful output.
Full write-up coming soon
We are working on a detailed page for Prompt Engineering - covering why it matters, how it works, related terms, and the tools that use it.
Related terms
From the glossaryFrequently asked questions
Does prompt engineering require coding?+
No. Most prompt engineering is plain text. Understanding how models respond to different phrasings, examples, and instructions is the core skill, not programming.
Will prompt engineering become obsolete?+
As models improve their instruction-following, some basic prompt tricks become less necessary. But structuring complex tasks, setting personas, and managing context remain valuable skills.
What is the difference between a system prompt and a user prompt?+
The system prompt sets the model's behaviour, persona, and constraints before the conversation begins. The user prompt is the individual message sent turn by turn.
Explore other terms
From the glossaryAI Agents
A program that takes goals and figures out the steps to reac...
API
The way one piece of software talks to another.
Chain of Thought
A prompting technique where the model reasons out loud, step...
Context Window
How much text a model can read at once.
Embeddings
Numeric fingerprints of text or images that let computers me...
Few-shot Learning
Showing a model two to five examples in the prompt so it fol...