Prompt frameworks give your instructions structure. Instead of starting from scratch every time, you use a proven schema. Here are ten frameworks that will immediately improve your prompt quality.
1. RACE - Role, Action, Context, Expectation The simplest and most versatile framework. Define the AI's role, the desired action, the context, and your expectation for the result. Example: "You are an experienced copywriter (Role). Write a product description (Action) for a new fitness tracker (Context). The description should be persuasive and under 200 words (Expectation)."
2. CRISPE - Capacity, Role, Insight, Statement, Personality, Experiment Ideal for complex creative tasks. You define the AI's capabilities, its role, provide background information, formulate the task, determine the personality, and allow experiments.
3. STAR - Situation, Task, Action, Result Originally known from job interviews, STAR works for prompts too. Describe the situation, the task, the expected action, and the desired result.
4. APE - Action, Purpose, Expectation A lean framework for quick prompts. What should be done, why, and what do you expect? Ideal for everyday use when RACE is too detailed.
5. RISEN - Role, Instructions, Steps, End Goal, Narrowing Especially good for multi-step tasks. The AI gets a role, clear instructions, steps to follow, an end goal, and constraints.
6. RTF - Role, Task, Format Even more compact than APE. Three elements suffice for many everyday tasks: who you are, what to do, in what format.
7. CO-STAR - Context, Objective, Style, Tone, Audience, Response Developed by the data science community in Singapore. Especially good for marketing and content because it explicitly addresses style, tone, and audience.
8. ERA - Expectation, Role, Action A reversal of RACE that starts with the expectation. Useful when the desired outcome matters more than the process.
9. GRADE - Goal, Request, Action, Detail, Examples Adds examples to the framework, which significantly improves quality for creative tasks. The few-shot technique is integrated directly into the framework.
10. SPARK - Situation, Problem, Aspiration, Result, Kismet A newer framework that builds in the "luck factor" — you allow the AI to suggest surprising or unconventional solutions.
Which Framework When?
For daily use, RTF or APE suffice. For marketing copy, CO-STAR is ideal. For technical tasks, RISEN provides the necessary structure. For creative projects, CRISPE or GRADE is the best choice.
Tip: Save your favorite frameworks as templates in your prompt library. This way, you don't have to remember the structure every time but simply fill in the fields. Prompt2Love variables are perfect for this — create one template per framework and set the variables per task.