A Library of Prompt Patterns That Work
Battle-tested prompt patterns you can reuse — interview-me, critique-then-revise, explain-your-assumptions, and more — with when to use each.
Most people who are good with AI aren't writing brilliant new prompts every time. They're reaching for a small set of moves that reliably work: make the model ask before it guesses, make it show its assumptions, make it criticize its own draft before you see it. Experienced practitioners use a dozen of these moves so often they stop noticing them.
This lesson writes those moves down. You'll get a library of named prompt patterns, each with a copyable prompt, an explanation of why it works, and clear guidance on when to use it and when it's a waste of time. The names matter: once you can say "this needs a pre-mortem" or "run critique-then-revise," you'll pick the right tool in seconds instead of rewriting prompts from scratch.
How to use this library
A prompt pattern is a reusable shape for a request that solves a recurring problem, the way a recipe solves "what's for dinner." Each pattern below is written as a fill-in template: square brackets mark what you replace. Patterns are grouped by the job they do:
| Job | Patterns |
|---|---|
| Clarify the task before work starts | Interview me, Explain your assumptions, Restate before you start |
| Think more carefully about the problem | Plan first, Options before answers, Pre-mortem |
| Ground the answer in real material | Quote then answer, Permission to say "I don't know" |
| Improve a draft before you see it | Critique then revise, Grade against a rubric, Simulated reader |
| Reuse what worked | Write the prompt for me, Save the recipe |
Two rules apply to every pattern. First, patterns sit on top of good context; they don't replace it. If the model is missing the facts, no pattern will save you (see From Prompt Engineering to Context Engineering). Second, every pattern costs something: an extra round trip, more output, or more of your attention. Use them where the stakes or the ambiguity justify it, not by reflex.