Prompt Lore
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Prompt lore is the body of tips, tricks, and rumors about getting the best out of AI models. 'Claude responds better to XML tags.' 'GPT likes JSON schemas.' Some of it's true. Some of it's outdated. Verify before you trust.
Real Talk
Prompt lore is the informal, community-shared knowledge about effective prompting techniques for specific models. Shared in blog posts, X threads, and model-provider docs. Much lore is model-version-specific and becomes obsolete with new releases, making continuous eval validation essential. Related to agent lore but focused on prompt-level techniques rather than agent workflows.
When You'll Hear This
"Classic prompt lore — XML tags for Claude, but does it still matter on 4.7?" / "Verify prompt lore against your own evals."
Related Terms
Agent Lore
Agent lore is the accumulated tribal knowledge about how to get the best behavior out of specific AI agents.
Prompt Cargo Cult
Prompt cargo cult is blindly copying prompt tricks because you saw them on Twitter — 'Think step by step', 'You are an expert', 'Take a deep breath' — with...
Prompt Engineering
Prompt engineering is the art of talking to AI so it actually does what you want.