Build your first AI workflow: lesson 3 of 10

Writing the Prompt for a Step

Each step’s prompt says four things: who the AI writes as, the one task, the rules, and exactly what to return. Your own material goes in a marked place, so the same prompt works on next week’s notes too.

The prompt for the step "Pull out decisions"
You are an experienced meeting secretary who writes careful, neutral records.
Your task is to read the meeting notes below and find every decision: something the group agreed, chose, approved, changed or stopped.
Meeting: [Meeting name and date] Meeting notes: [Meeting notes]
Rules: - Use only what is in the notes. Do not add decisions that are not written there. - Copy the source line word for word from the notes into the Source line column. Copy a short part if the line is long, but do not change any words. - Do not merge two decisions into one row. Do not include actions or open questions. Do not give advice or comments.
Return exactly one markdown table and nothing else: | # | Decision | Source line | If there are no decisions, keep the table and add one row that says "None found".
Who it writes as
Give the AI a role. It sets the point of view and the standard of care.
Your own material goes where the square brackets are.

Four Parts of a Step Prompt

  1. 1Who it writes asA role sets the point of view and the care: "You are a careful note-taker." One line is enough.
  2. 2The taskThe step’s one job, said plainly. If you cannot say it in one sentence, the step is doing two jobs.
  3. 3The rulesWhat to do and what never to do: use only what is in the material, say "not stated" instead of guessing.
  4. 4What to returnThe exact shape of the answer, such as a table with named columns, so the next step and the checks can read it.

Mark the Gap

Each prompt below is missing one of the four parts. Pick the part that is missing.

  1. 1
    You are a careful editor.

Your task is to shorten the draft below to half its length.

Rules: keep every number and name. Do not add anything that is not in the draft.

[Your draft]
  2. 2
    Your task is to list every action in the notes below, with its owner and due date.

Rules: use only what is in the notes. If an action has no owner, write "no owner". Do not guess.

Return a table with three columns: action, owner, due date.

[Your notes]
  3. 3
    You are an analyst reading a program report.

Your task is to pull every number from the report below.

Return a numbered list: the number, what it counts, and the sentence it came from.

[Your report]
  4. 4
    You are an experienced HR advisor.

Rules: use only the policy below. Do not give legal advice.

Return three short bullet points in plain words.

[The policy]

0 of 4 answered.

Finish the exercise and this lesson is marked done in this browser.

Go Deeper

Writing the prompt, the part guideThe four parts on more real prompts, and what makes each one good.Check a prompt of your ownThe prompt optimizer marks what your prompt is missing, in your browser.Change a step’s promptOpen any template in the Editor and rewrite a step to fit your work.