# The four parts of a prompt you can actually trust

> Source: <https://dev.to/paulcrinigan/the-four-parts-of-a-prompt-you-can-actually-trust-1nda>
> Published: 2026-07-19 02:16:10+00:00

After shipping a lot of AI features, the pattern that separated reliable prompts from flaky ones was simple: every reliable prompt names a **role**, one **task**, its **constraints**, and the exact **output format**. A specific prompt on a cheap model consistently beat a vague prompt on an expensive one.

Full write-up with examples (classification, extraction, chain-of-thought, structured JSON): [https://www.aiappsapi.com/articles/prompt-engineering.php](https://www.aiappsapi.com/articles/prompt-engineering.php)