Part I · Chapter 16
16. Meta-prompts
Major question
Can I ask AI to improve the prompt before answering it?
Description
A meta-prompt operates on the request itself. Instead of immediately solving the task, the model first diagnoses missing context, ambiguous concepts, weak instructions, absent constraints, and useful perspectives.
I want a rigorous and useful paper on the economic value of beauty in tourism. Before writing it, analyse my request as a prompt-engineering expert. Identify missing context, ambiguous concepts, necessary instructions, useful constraints, and relevant perspectives. Then formulate an improved prompt. Show the improved prompt and wait for approval before executing it. Initial prompt: " Write a paper on the economic value of beauty in tourism. "
After the chat reply (or your action), continue with:
The improved prompt is approved. Execute it now.
Expected impact
The meta-prompt moves the work upstream. Before producing, the model must make explicit the ambiguities and framing decisions that will determine answer quality.
Initial prompt -> analyse -> improve -> validate -> execute.