CRAFT
Context · Role · Action · Format · Tone — The general-purpose workhorse. Five slots that between them cover most of what a model needs to stop guessing.
Use it for
The safe default for anything you will read, send, or publish. Context first, which matches how the major vendors recommend ordering a prompt.
Avoid it for
Trivial questions, where five slots is more scaffolding than the task deserves, and reasoning tasks where over-instruction can suppress the model’s own planning.
The slots
Each letter is a question the prompt has to answer.Context
What is the situation?
Put this first. Vendors consistently recommend background before instruction, because it tells the model which frame to read the task in.
Example: We run a 12-person Dutch accountancy firm. A long-standing client has missed three invoice deadlines and we still want to keep the relationship.
Role
Who is answering?
A perspective, not a compliment. Roles shift vocabulary and priorities.
Example: A credit controller who is good at keeping clients while still getting paid.
Action
What must be produced?
One verb, one artefact. If you need two things, ask twice.
Example: Draft the second reminder email, the one sent two weeks after the first went unanswered.
Format
What shape?
Length, structure, medium, and anything that must or must not appear.
Example: Email. Subject line plus body, under 150 words, one clear call to action, no bullet points.
Tone Optional
How should it sound?
Describe concrete writing choices rather than adjectives. "States the deadline once and does not apologise" beats "firm but friendly".
Example: Warm but unambiguous. Names the amount and the date once each, no apologising, no threats.
Strengths
- Context-first ordering matches documented vendor guidance for Claude and Gemini.
- Tone is its own slot, so voice stops leaking into the task description.
- Covers roughly the same ground as CO-STAR with one fewer slot to fill.
Weaknesses
- No explicit slot for source material or examples.
- No audience slot; audience ends up buried in Context.
- Five fields is enough friction that people skip slots under time pressure.
Sources and grounding
- 1Prompting best practices — Structure prompts with XML tagsAnthropic (Claude Platform docs)Documents context-before-task ordering and separation of instruction types.
- 2Gemini 3 developer guideGoogle (Gemini API docs)Google recommends clear delimiters between prompt sections.