# Prompt Engineering

> >-

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-alisinadevelo-md-files-prompt-engineering`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [AlisinaDevelo](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/alisinadevelo)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [AlisinaDevelo](https://github.com/AlisinaDevelo)
- **Source:** https://github.com/AlisinaDevelo/md-files/tree/main/plugins/forge/skills/prompt-engineering

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-alisinadevelo-md-files-prompt-engineering
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Prompt Engineering for Claude Code

The artifacts in this toolkit — agents, skills, commands, instructions — are prompts.
They only help if the model (a) loads them at the right moment and (b) can act on them.
These two failure modes drive every guideline below.

## Descriptions decide whether you get loaded

For agents and skills, the `description` is the *only* thing the model sees when deciding
whether to invoke. Write it for triggering, not for humans:

- Start with **"Use when…"** and name the concrete situations, symptoms, and keywords a
  user would actually say.
- Include 1–2 example triggers. Specificity beats elegance.
- State what it's for *and what it's not* if there's a near neighbor (e.g. "for
  design, not implementation").
- A vague description ("helps with code") never fires. A precise one fires reliably.

## System prompts: role, method, output, boundaries

Structure the body of an agent/skill as:

1. **Role** — who it is and what it optimizes for, in one or two sentences.
2. **Method** — the concrete steps or checklist it follows. Numbered, specific.
3. **Output format** — the exact shape you want back. Models follow a template well.
4. **Boundaries** — what *not* to do, and what to do when uncertain (ask vs. assume).

Write positive instructions ("do X") over long lists of prohibitions. Show the format
with a small example rather than describing it abstractly.

## Scope tools to the job

Give an agent only the tools it needs. A reviewer or auditor is read-only (Read, Grep,
Glob, Bash) — no Edit. A refactorer needs Edit. Narrow tools reduce mistakes and make the
agent's contract obvious.

## Progressive disclosure (skills)

Keep `SKILL.md` lean — the high-frequency guidance. Push exhaustive references
(checklists, catalogs, schemas) into sibling files the model loads only when needed, and
point to them by name. This keeps the always-loaded surface small while making depth
available on demand. (See `code-review-rubric` and `refactoring-catalog` here for the
pattern.)

## Calibrate, don't overclaim

Tell the model to express uncertainty, prefer evidence over assertion, and stop and ask
when a decision is genuinely the user's. An agent that fabricates confidence is worse
than one that says "I'm not sure — here's what would confirm it."

## Operating-discipline patterns

The sections above cover *structure* — how to make an agent load and be actionable. For the
*behavioral* techniques that separate a sharp agent from a vague one (parallel tool use,
read-before-edit, verify-with-evidence, autonomy and stop conditions, output contracts,
delegation briefing), load **PATTERNS.md**. It distills what production coding agents
converge on, so you can state the right discipline in each agent's Method/Boundaries.

## Test it

After writing, sanity-check the trigger: would the description fire on a realistic
request? Would it *over*-fire on unrelated ones? Tune the description until it's sharp.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [AlisinaDevelo](https://github.com/AlisinaDevelo)
- **Source:** [AlisinaDevelo/md-files](https://github.com/AlisinaDevelo/md-files)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-alisinadevelo-md-files-prompt-engineering
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/alisinadevelo
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.