Turn a task into a useful AI brief

A useful prompt gives the assistant enough information to produce something you can judge. Start with a real task: you have product facts and need a short shop description. “Write persuasive copy” leaves too much open; a brief can specify the customer, source facts and acceptable result.

Give the facts and the destination

This example uses fictional data. Paste the source and request together:

Write a two-sentence English product description for someone choosing a desk lamp for a home office. Use only these facts: USB-C input; cable included; matte black finish. Brightness and battery details are not supplied. Mention the supplied features in plain language. Do not add technical specifications or a performance promise. After the description, list any missing information worth asking the supplier for.

The important ingredients are the audience, task, supplied facts and output. Anthropic's prompting guide recommends clear instructions and examples; the brief above applies those ideas to an everyday writing job.

Know what a good answer would look like

Illustrative output:

Description: “A matte black desk lamp with USB-C input. A cable is included.”

Questions for the supplier: “What is the brightness? Does it contain a battery?”

The questions stay outside the customer-facing copy. The description does not turn “USB-C” into “fast charging,” and it does not invent a rechargeable battery. A longer description is not automatically more useful when the source contains only a few facts.

Revise one part without losing the facts

Suppose the draft says “lights your entire workspace all evening.” That promise is unsupported. Give precise feedback: “Remove the lighting and runtime claim. Keep USB-C input, included cable and matte black finish. Keep the supplier questions separate.” Check the next version against the original facts, rather than assuming the correction preserved everything.

For your own task, reuse this structure: Who is this for? What should be produced? Which sources may be used? What must stay exact? What does a useful output look like? Include an example when tone or format is hard to describe. Save the brief with a reviewed result so that the next attempt starts from a concrete reference. Clear instructions make review easier; they do not make a factual check unnecessary.