Message formatting with Markdown and XML
When writing developer and user messages, you can help the model understand logical boundaries of your prompt and context data using a combination of Markdown formatting and XML tags.
Markdown headers and lists can be helpful to mark distinct sections of a prompt, and to communicate hierarchy to the model. They can also potentially make your prompts more readable during development. XML tags can help delineate where one piece of content (like a supporting document used for reference) begins and ends. XML attributes can also be used to define metadata about content in the prompt that can be referenced by your instructions.
In general, a developer message will contain the following sections, usually in this order (though the exact optimal content and order may vary by which model you are using):
Identity: Describe the purpose, communication style, and high-level goals of the assistant.
Instructions: Provide guidance to the model on how to generate the response you want. What rules should it follow? What should the model do, and what should the model never do? This section could contain many subsections as relevant for your use case, like how the model should call custom functions.
Examples: Provide examples of possible inputs, along with the desired output from the model.
Context: Give the model any additional information it might need to generate a response, like private/proprietary data outside its training data, or any other data you know will be particularly relevant. This content is usually best positioned near the end of your prompt, as you may include different context for different generation requests.
