Prompt engineering notes, after the Cursor leak

Cursor and some other prompts leaked. I’m not grading prompt quality here. I treat them as the current best effort from people who know the tools.

generate anime style image where AI fed up of prompt

# Start with official prompting docs

Start with official docs:

The docs are long, but they beat screenshots from prompt gurus.

Controversial sources

# Personal prompts: raw context wins

I separate two goals:

Build a production prompt executed by software
Use AI in daily life. For example, all images here are AI-generated

I focus on 2. In my personal workflow, I ask something like:

generate anime style image where AI fed up of prompt

No context, no examples, no extra limits. Will it work? Yes. Will it match the post’s style? Probably not.

To improve it, add context:

generate anime style image where AI fed up of prompt
Context:
my blog is about …
this blog post about …
avoid smth
do additional

For text results, I add:

provide result in markdown(?) format
example output: …

A few clarification rounds, and the result is usable.

# AI prompts in production software

Look at the leaked prompts from the header and imagine the time spent on them, even with the OpenAI cookbook in reach 🤯

# Generate the prompt from raw context

Anthropic, claude.ai author, provides automated tool https://anthropic.com/metaprompt-notebook/ (which requires access to their model and API key) to generate a better prompt. I think it was born outdated.

Alternative: use any AI provider to generate the prompt from raw, unprepared context. Example:

build a prompt to
generate anime style image where AI fed up of prompt
ctrl-C + ctrl-V of raw index.html

The result:

Anime style image, depicting an AI as a young, humanoid character with glowing digital patterns on their skin. The AI’s expression is one of extreme exasperation and frustration. They are surrounded by a chaotic whirlwind of HTML code snippets, specifically similar to the provided HTML document. The AI is holding a crumpled piece of paper with the text “Prompt Engineering” scribbled on it. Their eyes are wide and strained, and a single tear is rolling down their cheek. The background should be a blurred, abstract representation of a computer screen with scrolling text. Use vibrant, saturated colors and dynamic lines to convey the AI’s overwhelmed and fed-up state. The style should be reminiscent of modern anime with a touch of cyberpunk aesthetic.

Execute the prompt. Result is in the header.

# Prompt-wrapper fate

AI is already good enough to replace most third-party prompt-building tools. The wrapper fate came fast.