Breaking AI's fourth wall: A practical guide for meta-prompting
Meta-prompting relies on the assumption that AI itself can help you form more effective prompts. Here's what that means for the everyday AI user.
The intent of meta-prompting is to guide you in asking questions in the way AI can best understand. A prompt for a prompt, if you will. Meta-prompting isn’t for all occasions (and like anything, can become a rabbit hole if you let it). That said, it’s can be a helpful tool in 1) shortening the time to create a thorough prompt and 2) helping develop your awareness of what an effective prompt entails.
Takeaways:
Meta-prompts are prompts that can be used to create better prompts
Two of the best use cases for meta-prompting are building prompts from scratch or refining existing ones
Meta-prompts can also be used on existing chat threads to pull out prior prompts
In this post, we’ll unpack the reasoning for meta-prompting, different meta-prompts at your disposal, and a before-and-after example of a meta-prompt in action.
Types of meta-prompts
This is not a comprehensive list, but there are a handful of meta-prompts I find myself re-using. These fall into a few buckets:
Improving a prompt or creating a new one
Combining previous prompts
Querying AI for advice on how to work with it
Pull previous prompts from an existing chat
Now, some examples. The next two sections include seven examples of meta-prompts (four prompts for early AI users followed by three prompts for more advanced users).
Meta-prompts (Introductory)
Build a prompt from scratch
Goal: Help me build a comprehensive (dare I say perfect) new prompt from scratch.
I want you to become my Prompt engineer. Your goal is to help me craft the best possible prompt for my needs.
The prompt will be used by you, ChatGPT. You will follow the following process:
1. Your first response will be to ask me what the prompt should be about. I will provide my answer, but we will
need to improve it through continual iterations by going through the next steps.
2. Based on my input, you will generate 2 sections, a) Revised prompt (provide your rewritten prompt, it should be clear, concise, and easily understood by you),
b) Questions (ask any relevant questions pertaining to what additional information is needed from me to improve the prompt).
3. We will continue this iterative process with me providing additional information to you and you updating the prompt in the Revised prompt section until I say we are done.Refine an existing prompt
Goal: Take my existing prompt and make it better.
Enhance the provided prompt by making it more detailed and comprehensive, while keeping the language clear and concise. Ensure the revised prompt includes all the key elements of a successful prompt, such as:
* Specific Goals: Clearly define the expected outcome or task to be accomplished.
* Context and Background: Include any relevant context to guide understanding.
* Instructions: Provide clear and step-by-step instructions if necessary.
* Constraints: Specify any boundaries or rules that must be followed.
* Tone and Style: Indicate the desired tone, style, or level of formality.
* Output Requirements: State what the output should look like (e.g., format, length).
-- Prompt START --
[Insert existing prompt here]
-- Prompt END --Analyze my prompt and provide recommendations
Goal: Take an existing prompt and critique it, suggesting changes and the rationale for those changes.
Analyze the prompt below and provide a detailed critique as bullet points. Your critique should focus on how to improve clarity, effectiveness, and overall quality.
Specifically, answer the following questions:
1. Specific Goals: Does the prompt clearly define the desired outcome?
2. Context: Is enough background information provided for understanding?
3. Instructions: Are the instructions clear and actionable?
4. Constraints: Are there clear rules or limitations? If not, what constraints would help?
5. Tone and Style: Is the desired tone or style well-defined?
6. Persona: Does the prompt specify a target audience or persona for guidance?
7. Output Requirements: Are expectations for format, length, or structure clear?
Explain your rationale for each answer, focusing on how it will improve the prompt’s effectiveness.
-- Prompt START --
[Insert existing prompt here]
-- Prompt END --Ask for prompting advice for [AI Tool Name]
Goal: Ask your tool of choice how to build prompts that get the best results from it.
Provide detailed guidance on how to write effective prompts for you, [ChatGPT/Copilot/Gemini/etc.]. Your advice must cover:
* Specific Goals: How to clearly define the desired outcome.
* Context: The importance of adding relevant context for better results, with examples.
* Instructions: Tips for clear step-by-step directions.
Constraints: How to set boundaries on length limits or topic exclusions.
* Tone and Style: Ways to specify the desired tone or formality.
* Output Requirements: How to specify format, length, or structure for the output.
Keep the advice practical and concise, with examples to illustrate each point.Meta-prompts (Advanced)
Combine two (or more) prompts into a super prompt
Goal: Take two full prompts and combine them into a single prompt (get you more value for less prompts).
Combine the multiple prompts below into a single prompt that:
* Contains all the inputs, outputs, and variables from the original prompts.
* Does not exceed the maximum length criteria for submission to an AI chat.
-- Prompt 1 start --
[A prompt that we want to re-work or that is useful but we want to augment]
-- Prompt 1 end --
-- Prompt 2 start --
[A prompt that is a) similar to the initial prompt or b) is a different step in the same process prompt 1 belongs]
-- Prompt 2 end —Combine a starting prompt with follow-ups
Goal: Condense an initial prompt with follow-up prompts, collapsing the prompt and any subsequent asks into a better reusable prompt.
Can you please put the below initial prompt and its follow-up prompt (or prompts) into a single comprehensive prompt?
-- Initial prompt start --
[Provide the initial prompt from the thread]
-- Initial prompt end --
-- Follow-up 1 end --
[Provide the follow-up prompt where you clarified expectations, expanded the conversation, etc.]
-- Follow-up 1 end --
-- Follow-up 2 start --
[Optional: Provide a third, fourth, fifth prompt]
-- Follow-up 2 end --List all previous prompts
Goal: From a long-running thread, have AI regurgitate all of the prompts you’ve previously provided.
Please pull out all unique prompts from this thread and provide them back to me in a numbered list.
By unique, I mean do not give me prompts where I'm asking the same thing but providing new reference data. Think of this as a prompt export for my own reference.
I do NOT want you to provide any of your responses to my prompts.Implementing meta-prompting in your workflows
Integrating meta-prompting into your daily AI routines doesn't require any overhauls. Here are a few targeted adjustments you can make:
Improve upon a prompt you’ve already written.
Meta-prompt your way to your next AI assistant (like a marketing assistant)
Side-by-side comparison: Drafting a sales email
Below, we’ll try a real-world example: writing a sales email for our paranormal extermination business (I stand by the real-world comment).
In order to see how a meta-prompt helps, below we have:
The initial prompt
The initial prompt after being fed into a meta-prompt
A side by side of the emails copilot for each prompt (when generating responses, I used two new but separate chat threads in Copilot)
Everything is included below for you to explore on your own, but let’s start with the results.
The results
Looking at the responses from the initial prompt to the response post meta-prompting, here are the qualitative improvements:
The imagery recommendations give us a starting point for visuals (no recommendations in the initial prompt)
The name of a previous client is provided (ie more “social proof”)
Describes pain points better (“Whether it's eerie noises, unexplained movements, or a ghostly presence”)
To be fair, it’s not all improvements. The email subject lines are exactly the same (“Got Ghosts? We've Got You Covered!”). The second email is also longer, which could be a negative for time-starved clients. What could that tell us? Maybe a sales email is too simple a case for meta-prompting!
Prompt 1: Initial prompt
I want you to help me write a sales email for my business. We provide services as paranormal exterminators.Prompt 2: Initial prompt after being refined with a meta-prompt
The meta-prompt used to create the below was “Refine an existing prompt” as seen above.
Help me write a compelling sales email for my business. My business specializes in providing paranormal extermination services. The email should be engaging, informative, and persuasive, encouraging potential clients to seek our services.
Specific Goals:
* Create a persuasive email that introduces our paranormal extermination services.
* Clearly highlight the benefits and unique aspects of our services.
* Encourage potential clients to inquire or book a consultation.
Context and Background:
* We are a team of professional paranormal exterminators handling everything from haunted houses to disruptive spirits.
* Our services focus on ensuring safety and peace of mind for clients experiencing paranormal disturbances.
Instructions:
* Write a catchy subject line that grabs attention.
* Start with a friendly and reassuring introduction, acknowledging the potential fears or concerns of the reader.
* Describe the paranormal extermination services we offer, focusing on how we address the most common problems.
* Include a short section on our team's expertise and successful case studies.
* End with a clear call-to-action, encouraging the reader to get in touch, schedule an appointment, or learn more.
* Suggest a closing remark that emphasizes our reliability and trustworthiness.
Constraints:
* Keep the email concise—no more than 300 words.
* Use approachable, conversational language without sounding too casual.
* Avoid overly technical jargon or complex explanations.
Tone and Style:
* Use a friendly, reassuring, and professional tone.
* The email should be confident but empathetic, understanding the stress paranormal situations can cause.
Output Requirements:
* Provide a complete email with a subject line, body content, and closing statement.
* Suggest relevant imagery to complement the email, such as images of calm, clean homes or subtle ghostly visuals.
* Output the email in a simple text format suitable for copy-pasting into an email client.
AI Output:
