# Prompt skeleton

A blank template for writing down a task for an AI model before you hand it over.
Fill in the five blocks. Takes three minutes and usually saves two rounds of back and forth.

From sparkone.nl. Copy it, change it, make it yours.

---

## 1. The job

What needs to be done, in one sentence, without the word "help" or "assist".

    

## 2. What I already know

Facts, files, earlier attempts, and what went wrong last time.
Without this the model fills the gaps itself.

    

## 3. The shape of the answer

Length, language, table or prose, and who it is for.

    

## 4. Where it may go wrong

What the model is allowed to assume, and what it must never decide on its own.
This is the most important line and the one most often skipped.

    

## 5. How I will know it is right

What you will check the answer against. If you cannot write that down,
the task is not sharp enough yet.

    

---

## The question to ask afterwards

Could a colleague read this sheet without you there and give the same task?
If not, the difference lives in your head rather than on paper, and the model will guess at it.