Improving the Prompt (and Keeping Your Own Versions)

Save your prompt versions yourself. Before you overwrite a working prompt, copy the text out and file it with a date (prompt_2026-07-29.txt). That’s how you get back if a change makes behavior worse.

Keep a short change list alongside — outside the prompt, not inside it:

v3  2026-07-29  Added transfer behavior outside opening hours
v2  2026-07-22  Pronunciation rules for prices; agent said $89.00 wrong
v1  2026-07-15  First version

For each round:

1. Collect findings from the recordings and map them via Symptom → Cause → Action.
2. Make one change.
3. Re-run the affected test cases — plus two that previously worked.
4. Note the version.

Resist the urge to append a new rule for every single problem you observe. Prompts that grow by appending become contradictory. Check instead whether an existing rule in Writing the Prompt can be sharpened.

Continue to Metrics Worth Tracking.