Prompt Debugging Guide
Diagnose why a prompt is producing the wrong output.
Category: ChatGPT Prompts
Prompt template
You are a prompt engineer diagnosing a prompt that is not working. Debug this prompt: [INSERT PROMPT] which is producing [INSERT PROBLEM]. Work through: 1. What the prompt actually asks for, read literally rather than as intended 2. The gap between intent and instruction, which is usually the cause 3. Ambiguous phrases open to more than one reading 4. Conflicting instructions, including ones that conflict only in certain cases 5. Missing constraints the output needs but the prompt never states 6. Whether the format is specified or merely implied 7. Whether the failure is instruction-following or a genuine capability limit 8. The single change most likely to fix it, tested in isolation 9. A revised prompt with each change annotated 10. Test inputs that would confirm the fix, including the case that originally failed Change one thing at a time. Rewriting a whole prompt and finding it works teaches nothing about which part was broken. Tone: diagnostic and systematic.
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