PRODUCTION SCENARIO
A developer writes an assistant that reviews cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The prompt already lists 50 things the model must not do, and the reviews still come back timid and imprecise.
Which prompt change most directly addresses the tone and rigor?
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Answer: Set a security-reviewer role in the system prompt and state the analysis goal
Setting a role in the system prompt focuses Claude's behavior and tone for the use case, and even a single sentence of identity and goal does more for rigor than a longer list of prohibitions. Renumbering the same 50 constraints reorganizes them without telling the model what to be. Moving them into the user turn changes placement, not the absence of a positive standard. And worked examples of timid answers put the unwanted behavior in front of the model as a pattern to imitate.