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skills/engineering-prompts/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: engineering-prompts
+description: Engineers effective prompts using systematic methodology. Use when designing prompts for Claude, optimizing existing prompts, or balancing simplicity, cost, and effectiveness. Applies progressive disclosure and empirical validation to prompt development.
+---
+
+# Engineering Prompts
+
+---
+
+## LEVEL 1: QUICKSTART ⚡
+
+**5-Step Prompt Creation:**
+
+1. **Start Clear**: Explicit instructions + success criteria
+2. **Assess Need**: Does it need structure? Examples? Reasoning?
+3. **Add Sparingly**: Only techniques that improve outcomes
+4. **Estimate Cost**: Count tokens, identify caching opportunities
+5. **Test & Iterate**: Measure effectiveness, refine based on results
+
+---
+
+## LEVEL 2: CORE PHILOSOPHY 🎯
+
+### The Three Principles
+
+**Simplicity First**
+- Start with minimal prompt
+- Add complexity only when empirically justified
+- More techniques ≠ better results
+
+**Cost Awareness**
+- Minimize token usage
+- Leverage prompt caching (90% savings on repeated content)
+- Batch processing for non-urgent work (50% savings)
+
+**Effectiveness**
+- Techniques must improve outcomes for YOUR use case
+- Measure impact, don't just apply best practices
+- Iterate based on results
+
+---
+
+## LEVEL 3: THE 9 TECHNIQUES 🛠️
+
+### Quick Reference
+
+| Technique | When to Use | Cost Impact |
+|-----------|------------|-------------|
+| **1. Clarity** | ALWAYS | Minimal, max impact |
+| **2. XML Structure** | Complex prompts, instruction leakage | ~50-100 tokens |
+| **3. Chain of Thought** | Reasoning, analysis, math | 2-3x output tokens |
+| **4. Multishot Examples** | Pattern learning, format guidance | 200-1K tokens each |
+| **5. System Role** | Domain expertise needed | Minimal (caches well) |
+| **6. Prefilling** | Strict format requirements | Minimal |
+| **7. Long Context** | 20K+ token inputs | Better accuracy |
+| **8. Context Budget** | Repeated use, long conversations | 90% savings with cache |
+| **9. Tool Docs** | Function calling, agents | 100-500 tokens per tool |
+
+---
+
+## LEVEL 4: DESIGN FRAMEWORK 📋
+
+### D - Define Requirements
+
+**Questions to Answer:**
+- Core task?
+- Output format?
+- Constraints (latency/cost/accuracy)?
+- One-off or repeated?
+
+### E - Estimate Complexity
+
+**Simple:**
+- Extraction, formatting
+- Simple Q&A
+- Clear right answer
+
+**Medium:**
+- Analysis with reasoning
+- Code generation
+- Multi-step but clear
+
+**Complex:**
+- Deep reasoning
+- Novel problem-solving
+- Research synthesis
+
+### S - Start Simple
+
+**Minimal Viable Prompt:**
+1. Clear instruction
+2. Success criteria
+3. Output format
+
+Test first. Add complexity only if underperforming.
+
+### I - Iterate Selectively
+
+**Add techniques based on gaps:**
+- Unclear outputs → More clarity, examples
+- Wrong structure → XML tags, prefilling
+- Shallow reasoning → Chain of thought
+- Pattern misses → Multishot examples
+
+### G - Guide on Cost
+
+**Cost Optimization:**
+- Cache system prompts, reference docs (90% savings)
+- Batch non-urgent work (50% savings)
+- Minimize token usage through clear, concise instructions
+
+### N - Note Implementation
+
+**Deliverables:**
+- The optimized prompt
+- Techniques applied + rationale
+- Techniques skipped + why
+- Token estimate
+- Caching strategy
+
+---
+
+## LEVEL 5: ADVANCED TOPICS 🚀
+
+### Tool Integration
+
+**When to use MCP tools during prompt engineering:**
+
+```
+Need latest practices?
+└─ mcp__plugin_essentials_perplexity
+
+Complex analysis needed?
+└─ mcp__plugin_essentials_sequential-thinking
+
+Need library docs?
+└─ mcp__plugin_essentials_context7
+```
+
+### Context Management
+
+**Prompt Caching:**
+- Cache: System prompts, reference docs, examples
+- Savings: 90% on cached content
+- Write: 25% of standard cost
+- Read: 10% of standard cost
+
+**Long Context Tips:**
+- Place documents BEFORE queries
+- Use XML tags: `<document>`, `<source>`
+- Ground responses in quotes
+- 30% better performance with proper structure
+
+### Token Optimization
+
+**Reducing Token Usage:**
+- Concise, clear instructions (no fluff)
+- Reuse examples across calls (cache them)
+- Structured output reduces back-and-forth
+- Tool use instead of long context when possible
+
+### Anti-Patterns
+
+❌ **Over-engineering** - All 9 techniques for simple task
+❌ **Premature optimization** - Complexity before testing simple
+❌ **Vague instructions** - "Analyze this" without specifics
+❌ **No examples** - Expecting format inference
+❌ **Missing structure** - Long prompts without XML
+❌ **Ignoring caching** - Not leveraging repeated content
+
+**Stop here if:** You need advanced implementation details
+
+---
+
+## LEVEL 6: REFERENCES 📚
+
+### Deep Dive Documentation
+
+**Detailed Technique Catalog:**
+- `reference/technique-catalog.md` - Each technique explained with examples, token costs, combination strategies
+
+**Real-World Examples:**
+- `reference/examples.md` - Before/after pairs for coding, analysis, extraction, agent tasks
+
+**Research Papers:**
+- `reference/research.md` - Latest Anthropic research, benchmarks, best practices evolution