Series · 3/3
Prompt engineering, minus the magic
Models understand plain language, and most 2023 tricks are dead. What moved into context and the harness, and what still belongs in the prompt.
01Prompt engineering in 2026: what's still worth writing in the prompt
Models understand plain language, and most 2023 tricks are dead. What moved into context and the harness, and what still belongs in the prompt.
02System prompts in production: four blocks, one order, and a cache that saves 90%
How to build a production system prompt: role, rules, examples, output contract, XML vs markdown, few-shot, length, and prompt caching with real prices.
03Prompt evals: how Rechat's Lucy stalled, and how to know a prompt change helped
Part 3: golden sets, LLM-as-judge, pairwise comparison and regression on real traffic. The Lucy case, plus a promptfoo config to paste.