Prompt engineering is often described as a mystical art. It is not — it is engineering with patterns that work and others that don't.
1. Give a precise role
2. Structure with XML
3. Few-shot examples
4. Explicit chain of thought
5. Negative constraints
6. Minimal relevant context
7. Iterate via diff
8. Self-critique
Finish with "re-read your code and list 3 potential issues." 80% of the time, the AI finds real bugs in its own output.