Prompting – Meta-Prompting & Template System

Invoke when: meta-prompting, template generation, prompt optimization, programmatic prompt composition, creating dynamic agents, generating structured prompts from data.

Overview

The Prompting skill owns ALL prompt engineering concerns:

• Standards – Anthropic best practices, Claude 4.x patterns, empirical research
• Templates – Handlebars-based system for programmatic prompt generation
• Tools – Template rendering, validation, and composition utilities
• Patterns – Reusable prompt primitives and structures

Workflow Routing

Core Components

1. Standards.md

Complete prompt engineering documentation based on:

• Anthropic’s Claude 4.x Best Practices (November 2025)
• Context engineering principles
• 1,500+ academic papers on prompt optimization

2. Templates/

Five core primitives for programmatic prompt generation:

3. Tools/

RenderTemplate.ts – Core rendering engine

bun run $PAI_DIR/skills/Prompting/Tools/RenderTemplate.ts \
  --template Primitives/Briefing.hbs \
  --data path/to/data.yaml \
  --output path/to/output.md

ValidateTemplate.ts – Template syntax checker

bun run $PAI_DIR/skills/Prompting/Tools/ValidateTemplate.ts \
  --template Primitives/Briefing.hbs

Examples

Example 1: Generate agent roster

User: "Generate a roster from my agents.yaml"
-> Uses RenderTemplate with Roster.hbs
-> Outputs formatted agent definitions

Example 2: Create briefing for research agent

User: "Brief the research agent on this task"
-> Uses RenderTemplate with Briefing.hbs
-> Generates complete agent context handoff

Example 3: Validate template syntax

User: "Check my new template for errors"
-> Uses ValidateTemplate
-> Reports syntax issues, missing variables

Best Practices

1. Separation of Concerns – Templates for structure, YAML for content
2. Keep Templates Simple – Business logic in TypeScript, not templates
3. DRY Principle – Extract repeated patterns into partials
4. Validate Before Rendering – Check all required variables exist

References

• Standards.md – Complete prompt engineering guide
• Templates/README.md – Template system overview
• Tools/RenderTemplate.ts – Implementation details