Decoder. plain-English AI glossary

Instruction

● Core

A clear, direct request that tells the model what to do — the most basic building block of a prompt.

Think of it like

A recipe instruction: "Chop the onions finely."

Example

"Summarize this article in one paragraph." or "Generate a creative product name."

How it actually works

Good instructions are specific, actionable, and unambiguous. Vague instructions like "Make it better" fail. Clear instructions like "Improve readability by using shorter sentences and active voice" work. Instruction quality is the single biggest driver of model output quality.

For product teams

Foundation of prompt quality. Invest here.

For engineers

Write clearly. Be specific. Test and iterate. Use examples if needed.

Constraint — Paired with constraints and format specs.

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