Context Before Commands

Module 1, Reverse Prompting | Essay 4 of 8

The single most common prompting mistake isn't what you ask. It's what you skip before you ask.

Most people go straight to the request. "Write a bio." "Draft a proposal." "Summarize these notes." The task is clear in their head, so they assume it's clear to the agent. It isn't. The agent is starting from nothing every time.

Context is everything the agent needs to know before it starts working. Not the task, the situation around the task. Who you're. Who the output is for. What you're trying to accomplish. What tone fits. What constraints matter. What you've already tried.

Compare these two prompts:

"Write a bio."

"Write a LinkedIn bio for me. I'm a product manager with eight years in B2B software, currently looking for senior roles at mid-size companies. I want to sound confident but not arrogant. Two short paragraphs, no buzzwords."

Same request. Completely different information. The second one will produce something you can actually use. The first one will produce something you'll spend 20 minutes trying to reshape into what you actually wanted.

The five things worth including before almost any task:

Who you're: your role, your industry, how you work. Who this is for: the audience, their level, what they already know. What good looks like: the outcome you want, the tone, the format. What to avoid: things that would make the output wrong for your situation. Why it matters: a sentence on the stakes, because context on purpose changes everything.

You don't need all five for every prompt. A quick task might only need one or two. But the habit of pausing before you type and asking "what does the agent need to know here?" consistently produces better results than any prompt trick.

One more thing. You'll find yourself writing the same context over and over, who you're, how you communicate, what your work is about. That's a signal. That context belongs in memory, not in every prompt. Module 2 covers how to set that up so you never repeat yourself.

For now: context first, request second. Every time.