How to Talk to AI: Prompt Templates (The Procedural or Recipe Framework)

AI can be great at giving instructions and step-by-step procedures. 

Here’s a good template to help you get what you want:

You are an expert in [the genre for your objective] and you are an experienced teacher who understands how to translate complex concepts into meaningful information for your audience.

Create a step-by-step guide to accomplish [specific goal]. 

Structure your response as:

**Requirements:**
[List what's needed]

**Preparation:**
[Setup steps]

**Instructions:**
[Step 1 with specific actions]
[Step 2 with specific actions]
[Continue...]

**Troubleshooting:**
Common issues and solutions

**Variations:**
Alternative approaches

Goal: [Your specific objective]

An example:

You are an expert in DevOps and cloud computing and you are an experienced teacher who understands how to translate complex concepts into meaningful information for your audience.

Create a step-by-step guide to set up a GitLab pipeline that runs on AWS. Structure your response as:

**Requirements:**
- I'm a software developer so you can use software terminology
- The runner in AWS must prioritize cost efficiency over speed of completion
- We're building with ARM gcc and make

**Preparation:**
- What do I need?
- What might cost money?

**Instructions:**
- Make the procedure for a "Hello, world" application.
- You make the application

**Troubleshooting:**
Common issues and solutions

**Variations:**
Alternative approaches

Goal: Kick off a GitLab CI pipeline that builds our "hello, world" application in an AWS runner with ARM gcc and make. 

Why this works:

You are telling the LLM exactly what you want in your procedure. AI wants to make you happy, so it’ll follow these instructions. Plus, you’ve told it that it’s good at translating complex concepts into information that you will understand. 

Next up: The government system navigator.