# prompt-engineering

Guides prompt design for agents, subagents, and LLM integrations. Helpful when building production templates, chain-of-thought prompts, or agent hooks.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 1400 installs · ★ 1787
- Author: NeoLabHQ
- License: GPL-3.0 · policy=link-only · description only; the file stays with the author
- Source: https://github.com/NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit/tree/HEAD/skills/prompt-engineering/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-08-26
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/neolabhq-prompt-engineering

## What it does

This skill outlines structured prompt engineering patterns for language models. It guides the creation of system instructions and modular templates with dynamic variables. For extraction or formatting tasks, it details few-shot configurations using two to five input-output pairs.

The reference defines an instruction hierarchy starting from system context down to the output format. It also details self-verification steps for RAG pipelines and latency reduction through prefix caching.

Excessive examples easily overflow the context window. Keeping track of token budgets is necessary before moving any prompt into production.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill prompt-engineering -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/prompt-engineering/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/prompt-engineering/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill prompt-engineering -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/prompt-engineering/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill prompt-engineering -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/prompt-engineering/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit prompt-engineering
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/prompt-engineering/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill prompt-engineering -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --path skills/prompt-engineering
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/prompt-engineering/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit --skill prompt-engineering -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/NeoLabHQ/context-engineering-kit/tree/HEAD/skills/prompt-engineering/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- design system prompts with explicit rules
- implement step-by-step reasoning chains for complex tasks
- build reusable prompt templates with dynamic variables
- optimize response latency and token usage in production

## Example prompts
- Optimize this support ticket classification prompt by adding 3 few-shot examples
- Help me build a system prompt for a code review agent using step-by-step reasoning

## Similar
- [prompt-engineering-patterns](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/prompt-engineering-patterns.md) — skill · 23418 installs
- [ai-engineer](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/ai-engineer.md) — skill · 1300 installs
- [llm-context](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/llm-context.md) — skill · 1300 installs
- [ai-product](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/sickn33-ai-product.md) — skill · 960 installs
- [llm-application-dev](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/llm-application-dev.md) — skill · 462 installs
- [context-engineering-collection](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/context-engineering-collection.md) — skill · 4200 installs

## Other versions with the same name
- [prompt-engineering · giuseppe-trisciuoglio](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/giuseppe-trisciuoglio-prompt-engineering.md) — 3900 installs

From the same set: [neolabhq/context-engineering-kit](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/by/neolabhq/context-engineering-kit.md) — 64 cards

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