Use examples (multishot prompting) to guide Claude's behavior - Anthropic (original) (raw)

Examples are your secret weapon shortcut for getting Claude to generate exactly what you need. By providing a few well-crafted examples in your prompt, you can dramatically improve the accuracy, consistency, and quality of Claude’s outputs. This technique, known as few-shot or multishot prompting, is particularly effective for tasks that require structured outputs or adherence to specific formats.

• Accuracy: Examples reduce misinterpretation of instructions.
• Consistency: Examples enforce uniform structure and style.
• Performance: Well-chosen examples boost Claude’s ability to handle complex tasks.

Crafting effective examples

For maximum effectiveness, make sure that your examples are:

• Relevant: Your examples mirror your actual use case.
• Diverse: Your examples cover edge cases and potential challenges, and vary enough that Claude doesn’t inadvertently pick up on unintended patterns.
• Clear: Your examples are wrapped in <example> tags (if multiple, nested within <examples> tags) for structure.