What is your code prompting style for Claude? I’ve tried to repurpose some of my...

simonw · on March 17, 2024

Almost impossible to describe prompting style, but here are some examples of how I've used Claude 3:

https://gist.github.com/simonw/4cecde4a729f4da0b5059b50c8e01... - writing a Python function

https://gist.github.com/simonw/408fcf28e9fc6bb2233aae694f8cd... - most sophisticated example, building a JavaScript command palette

https://gist.github.com/simonw/2002e2b56a97053bd9302a34e0b83... - asking it to refactor some existing code

I don't use the "Act as a X" format any more, I'm not at all convinced it has a noticeable impact on quality. I think it's yet another example of LLM superstition.

lgas · on March 17, 2024

> I don't use the "Act as a X" format any more, I'm not at all convinced it has a noticeable impact on quality. I think it's yet another example of LLM superstition.

It's very contextually dependent. You really have to things like this for your specific task, with your specific model, etc. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hurts, and sometimes it does nothing at all.

bugglebeetle · on March 17, 2024

Super helpful! Thanks!

furyofantares · on March 17, 2024

I didn't know people were still doing this "act as etc etc" instructional prompting.

I just tell it my coding problem. Or when making something from scratch, ask for small things and incrementally add.