Prompting & context · Glossary term
What is System Prompt?
A provider-defined instruction message or configuration supplied by the application to establish behavior and constraints within that provider's instruction hierarchy.
“Developer-controlled instructions for a model interaction.”
Why does System Prompt matter?
System instructions can guide behavior, but they are not guaranteed to remain secret and should not be treated as a security boundary.
What is the common confusion about System Prompt?
Priority rules, message roles, persistence, and visibility differ across APIs. Check the current provider contract.
Learn System Prompt in the course
Start with
- Agent Instructions as Executable Constraints
Instructions written as prose are wishes. Instructions written as constraints are tests. The workbench turns each rule into something an agent can check at runtime and a reviewer can verify after…
Taught in Phase 14: Agent Engineering.
Related terms
- Prompt EngineeringDesigning model-facing instructions, examples, constraints, and output requirements to improve behavior on a defined task.
- Prompt InjectionAn attack or failure mode in which untrusted content influences a model to disregard intended instructions, expose data, misuse tools, or…
- Context EngineeringDesigning the full information environment supplied to a model at each step, including instructions, selected files, retrieved evidence,…
- GuardrailsSystem controls that constrain inputs, tool use, outputs, permissions, and escalation.
- Instruction HierarchyA rule set for resolving conflicts among instructions from sources with different authority, such as application policy, users, and…
More terms in Prompting & context
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