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Prompt Engineering

Reviewed 19 July 2026Canonical definitionPart of: Agent Reliability & Deployment Terms →

Prompt engineering is the practice of designing and refining the instructions given to a language model to elicit desired behavior. In governed systems, prompts should be version-controlled, tested, and reviewed because they directly shape agent actions.

§01 / QUESTIONSterm: Prompt Engineering
Questions

Common questions.

What is Prompt Engineering?

Prompt engineering is the practice of designing and refining the instructions given to a language model to elicit desired behavior.

How is Prompt Engineering used in production?

In governed systems, prompts should be version-controlled, tested, and reviewed because they directly shape agent actions.

Which terms are related to Prompt Engineering?

Closely related concepts include Prompt Version Control, Agent Configuration Management, Agent CI/CD, Agent Versioning. Each is defined in the Prefactor glossary.

§02 / RELATEDnext: where this fits
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Where this fits.

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