What is a prompt?

A prompt is the text you send to a model. It can be a question, a task, or code you paste. The model does not see the page you are looking at. It sees only this text.

A short, empty line brings a vague answer. If you say "explain this", the model chooses what to explain, to whom, and how long. If you do not say, the answer may be long or not in your language.

A straight prompt says three things: what you want, in which language, and how long. If you have an example, write that too. The answer comes closer to the example.

Do not pile everything into one go. Get a short answer first, then say "make this shorter" or "open the second step". A chat is built that way.

• "Explain this Python code in three sentences" works better than "explain this".
• Also write what should not be in the answer. For example: do not write an introduction.
• Show a code mistake as the error text, the result you expected, and the result you got.
• Do not put in a password, a key, or someone else's private text.
• If the first answer is wrong, do not delete everything and start over. Point at the wrong place.
• If you give the same prompt to another model, the answer may not be the same. The check is still yours.

The model does not see your screen. If you want it to see the text, write the text itself.