Prompt design is how layers meet in one invocation. Architecture is how those layers are sourced and governed over time.
Suggested order
- Policy layer — must-not rules, compliance lines.
- Task layer — objective, format, success criteria.
- Operational layer — retrieved tickets, CRM fields, documents.
- Examples (optional) — few-shot only when eval proves they help.
Common mistakes
- Operational dumps before policy → model optimizes for completion, not compliance.
- Contradictory layers from different owners → designate a single context owner.
- Stale examples → regression in eval.