System prompt
A prompt written by the developer or vendor, not the user, that the app sends alongside every user-supplied prompt to set the model's role, rules, and tone.
Also called
- Developer prompt
- Preamble
Kind of
- Agent harness The structure around a model that turns it into one working agent: its interface, agent loop, own context and memory, permissions, and list of allowed tools.
Often confused with
- Prompt Text or data given to an AI system, usually by a user and often as an instruction, that is only part of the context the system sees when it answers.
Related
- Agent skill A package of instructions and files, written in an open text-based format, that an agent loads only when a task needs it.
- Role prompting A method of prompting which instructs the model to act as a certain human-like role or persona.
How it connects
- System prompt part of Context