improving-prompts

To improve an underperforming CLAUDE.md prompt, apply Claude 4.5 prompting best practices by adding explicit instructions, relevant context, examples, and clear evaluation criteria while preserving your original tone.

Claude 4.5 prompt improvement best practices involve prescribing exact behaviors, providing context to explain why a rule matters, and adding examples to enhance model alignment and instruction-following.

To update custom commands without losing intent, make conservative changes that only modify prompts when concrete issues exist, ensuring output adheres to guidelines while preserving user tone and avoiding unnecessary edits.

You should add context and examples to skill instructions when the model fails to follow rules accurately, as explaining why a rule matters and providing examples improves alignment and ensures the model understands expected behaviors.

Yes, this prompt tuning approach works for AGENTS.md files, applying the same Claude 4.5 best practices for explicit instruction, context, examples, and evaluation criteria to improve model performance across configuration files.

Unintended behavior from prompt changes often occurs when modifications are unsubstantiated; applying structured best practices ensures only concrete issues are addressed while preserving the original user intent and tone.