Stage 2 · Lesson 3 of 9
System prompts
The holds the instructions that apply to the whole conversation. Some providers call it the developer message. It sets the role, the rules, the tone, the and what the assistant must refuse.
The user message holds the specific request and its data. Keeping the two apart makes the model weigh your rules above what users type. It also lets you change the product's behaviour in one place.
A good system prompt explains why each rule exists, because models follow reasons better than bare commands.
Common traptreating it as a security boundary: users and injected documents (documents with planted instructions) can still talk a model out of its instructions, so enforce anything critical in code.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come with the full roadmap. Unlock
Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- CoursePaidGrokking Prompt Engineering for Software Engineers
Design Gurus · Beginner · Subscription
Prompting patterns for engineers building features, not for chatting
- GitHub repoFreeAnthropic Courses
Anthropic · Beginner
Free notebooks: API fundamentals, then the interactive prompt engineering tutorial
Practise
Keep handy
Also worth your time
Few-shot, chain of thought, JSON enforcement and parsing failures in one place