prompt-token-efficiency

Remove pleasantries, repetition, and narrative framing, then keep only task-critical facts. Replace long qualifiers with concrete limits and end with explicit success criteria so the compressed prompt preserves all required constraints.

Use imperative statements, prefer bullets over long prose, and keep each instruction atomic. State the objective in one short sentence first, put required context before optional context, and specify the output format unambiguously.

Ambiguity comes from undefined nouns, pronouns without clear antecedents, vague words like "appropriate" or "some", and missing scope limits. Verify that time ranges, quantities, and success criteria are explicit and testable before finalizing.

Avoid aggressive compression when examples are needed to prevent failure, since removing them can degrade output quality. Keep one minimal example if the task is prone to misinterpretation, and never drop required constraints to save tokens.

No. Shorter prompts help only when clarity and constraints are preserved. The goal is minimal tokens with maximal clarity, so conflicting instructions or missing context must be resolved rather than deleted.