Failure Signals and Fixes
Recognize common prompt failure signals and map them to the best first fix.
Failure signal: the answer is polished but skips key reasoning steps. First lever to test: chain-of-thought decomposition or a separate reasoning pass. Ask whether the task hides intermediate decisions that were never made explicit. Failure signal: the output shape is okay, but the quality bar feels generic and inconsistent. First lever to test: a tighter few-shot set with contrast across yes, no, and edge cases. This usually means the model needs the boundary taught, not more adjectives. Signal: examples leak into the live answer If materials are mixed, fix structure before tuning style. Failure signal: one prompt keeps drifting when…
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