By skyforbes After a lot of testing, I found that most AI errors come from missing reasoning steps, not from “bad prompts.”
This simple structure improved consistency across almost every task I tried:
This simple structure improved consistency across almost every task I tried:
- Restate the task
“Rewrite my instruction in one precise sentence.” -
Expose the reasoning
“Explain your reasoning step-by-step before generating the answer.” -
Add one constraint
Tone, length, or exclusions — but only one. -
Add one example
Keeps the output grounded and reduces abstraction. -
Quality trim
“Remove the weakest 20% of the text.”
Full template:
“Restate the task clearly.
Explain your reasoning.
Apply one constraint.
Add one simple example.
Trim the weakest 20%.”
It’s simple, but it removes a surprising amount of noise.
Anyone else using a reasoning-first approach?