AI learning guide
Prompt engineering asks well. Context engineering prepares well.
Better instructions help. Better inputs, sources and constraints make the system dependable.
Prompt engineering
Prompt engineering focuses on how you state the task: role, objective, constraints, format, examples and evaluation criteria.
Context engineering
Context engineering focuses on what the model receives around the prompt: reliable source material, relevant history, tools, memory, permissions and the right information at the right time.
Use them together
- Define the job clearly
- Supply trusted and relevant context
- Specify boundaries and output format
- Ask for uncertainty to be surfaced
- Evaluate against a checklist or source
Questions
Clear before you commit.
Which should I learn first?+
Learn clear prompting first, then quickly add context selection and verification. Real workflows need both.