Overly specific instructions for advanced AI models
Avoid detailed itineraries; newer models handle nuance and ambiguity better.
Provide higher-level goals and allow the AI model to determine the best approach, leveraging its understanding of nuance and ambiguity.
Writing skills as elaborate itineraries or recipes with overly specific step-by-step guidance.
Models have improved in understanding context and ambiguity. Overly prescriptive instructions can now hinder performance by limiting the model's ability to find optimal solutions or adapt to subtle variations.
Avoid providing overly detailed, recipe-like instructions to advanced AI models. Newer models are adept at understanding nuance and ambiguity, and such specificity can now hinder rather than help their performance.
- Rethinking skills and prompts for GPT-6 Astra ↗OpenAI Developers Blog · OpenAI Developers Blog · Sep 12, 2026 · paraphrased
First seen on Subvolts Sep 12, 2026. Updated Sep 12, 2026. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
- Rethinking skills and prompts for GPT-6 AstraOpenAI · OpenAI Developers Blog · Sep 12, 2026
The Playbook: reusable how-tos, prompts, configs and tips pulled out of the news.
- HeuristicDefine task completion clearly to avoid premature stoppingExplicitly define what 'done' means for a task to ensure AI models complete the full scope. · 10 min
- Anti-patternBuilding agent infrastructure from scratchAvoid piecing together agent infrastructure; use standardized SDKs and native sandbox support. · 5 min
- Setting tipAgent workspace portability with Manifest abstractionUse the Manifest abstraction to describe agent workspaces for portability across different providers. · 10 min
- ToolOpenAI Agents SDK for building agentsSDK for building agents that can inspect files, run commands, edit code, and work on long-horizon tasks. · 15 min
- Anti-patternPrompting AI to read all project docs before every editAvoid forcing AI to read extensive documentation before simple edits; use contextual pointers instead. · 10 min
- HeuristicSimplify instructions for newer, more capable AI modelsAvoid overly specific instructions; newer models understand nuance and ambiguity better. · 10 min
Questions people ask
- Which AI tools does this work with?
- Any current model. It was seen with ChatGPT in the sources.
- Where did this come from?
- OpenAI Developers Blog (OpenAI Developers Blog). Subvolts collected, normalized and credited it; the link above opens the original.