system prompt
/ˈsɪstəm ˌprɒmpt/
persistent instructions that set the model's behavior and persona for an entire conversation
system prompt in a sentence
“The system prompt established that the assistant should respond in formal English.”
Origin of system prompt
Greek systēma organized whole + Latin promptus
Related Words
few-shot learning
providing examples in the prompt to demonstrate desired input-output patterns
zero-shot
asking a model to perform a task without any examples
chain-of-thought
prompting the model to show its reasoning step-by-step before giving a final answer
prompt injection
a security vulnerability where malicious input overrides system instructions
context priming
using early context to set expectations and influence subsequent model behavior
meta-prompting
asking the model to help design or improve prompts for itself