Promptles
Output Format

Show Examples in the Skill Body

Drop in 2–3 concrete <example> blocks. Patterns travel; rules drift.

Agents copy patterns far more reliably than they follow abstract rules. A skill that says 'be concise and use the right tone' produces wildly different outputs run-to-run; a skill with two or three concrete `<example>` blocks — input, ideal response, and a brief note on why — produces consistent ones. Show the shape you want: a sample commit message, a sample PRD section, a sample diagnose report. Examples are how the skill teaches itself.

Where you'll practice this

One Promptles scenario teaches this principle directly.

  • Show, Don't Tell

    You're authoring a `commit` skill that writes git commit messages for the current staged diff. The current body is all rules: 'be concise', 'use imperative mood', 'explain the why, not the what', 'keep the subject under 72 characters'. In practice, every run produces a slightly…

Other principles in Output Format