Prompt Types and Styles in AI Conversations

Core Prompt Types

In every conversation with an AI like ChatGPT, there are three core prompt types. These define who is speaking, when, and why.

Each prompt plays a role in shaping the conversation. Here's a closer look at how they work:

System Prompt

• Set behind the scenes (you usually don't see it unless you're customising it).
• Tells the AI how to behave: tone, style, limitations, formatting rules, etc.
• Example content:
  • "You are a candid assistant who avoids jargon."
  • "Respond in Australian English. Be clear, warm, and precise."

User Prompt

• This is your input: a question, task, instruction, or context.
• It’s what you want the AI to respond to.
• Example prompts:
  • "Write a summary of this document in dot points."
  • "Let’s work through this problem step by step."
  • "Here are 3 examples. What would the 4th look like?"

Assistant Prompt

• The AI’s reply — shaped by the system prompt and user input.
• Carries forward the conversation and adapts to your style.
• Can include tone shifts, markdown, CoT reasoning, etc.

Prompt Styles & Techniques

These aren’t new prompt types. They’re techniques or formats used within system, user, or assistant prompts to guide the AI’s thinking, style, or behaviour.

Let’s break those down:

Few-shot Prompting

Provide a few examples, then ask the AI to follow the pattern. Useful for:

• Pattern recognition
• Teaching formatting
• Getting consistent outputs

Example:

Q: What’s 2 + 2?
A: 4
Q: What’s the capital of France?
A: Paris
Q: What’s 10 x 5?
A:

Chain-of-Thought (CoT)

Prompt the AI to work through reasoning step by step. Helps with logic, maths, or complex decisions.

Example:

"Let’s break this into steps to understand the issue."

Instructional Prompts

These guide the structure, format, or style of the response.

Examples:

• "Summarise in bullet points."
• "Use markdown."
• "Be brief, but clear."

Meta Prompts

Define who or what the assistant is — its tone, personality, or values.

Example:

"You are a thoughtful and confident assistant who writes with rhythm and clarity."

Contextual Prompts

Pull in history, memory, or hidden details (e.g. past user instructions or conversation history).

Example:

If you said earlier: "Always write in Australian English," the AI will carry that forward.

Injected / Hidden Prompts

Invisible to you, but used by the system to apply guardrails or adjust behaviour.

• Control tone, safety, personality.
• You won’t see or modify these.

Summary Diagram

Conversation Structure:

[System Prompt]  →  defines the assistant’s mindset and rules
↓
[User Prompt]    →  your request, instruction, or question
↓
[Assistant Prompt] →  AI response (shaped by both above)

Styles like few-shot, CoT, or instructional can live inside any of those — especially system and user prompts.

Prompt Flowchart