When a task is ambiguous, don't add more adjectives — add examples. Showing Claude
2–5 input→output pairs (few-shot) pins down the exact format, edge-case handling, and tone far more
reliably than describing them. Add examples one at a time and watch the model's output snap into shape.
zero / one / few-shotedge casesformat lockingconsistency
Explain like I'm 10
Telling someone "sort these toys nicely" is confusing — nice how? But if you show them: "see, red ones
here, blue ones there, broken ones in the bin" — now they get it instantly and can do the rest themselves.
Examples teach faster than instructions. Claude is the same: show, don't just tell.
Add examples — watch reliability climb
The task: classify a customer message into billing / technical /
cancellation, and flag urgency. Start with zero examples and add them. Notice how the tricky
"mixed" message gets handled correctly only once an example shows how:
Model output on the test input "App keeps crashing AND you double-charged me, fix it now!!":
How many, and which?
How many: usually 2–5. One example sets the format; a few cover the variations. More isn't always
better — past a point you spend tokens for little gain.
Pick edge cases: include the tricky inputs (ambiguous, empty, multi-label) — those are what the
model gets wrong without a demonstration.
Be consistent: every example must follow the exact output format you want. The model copies
your formatting faithfully — including any mistakes.
Wrap them: put examples in <example> tags so they're clearly demonstrations, not
part of the live input.
Exam trap: for an ambiguous or inconsistent task, the right fix is
few-shot examples, not "write a longer description" or "raise the temperature." And the examples must be
consistent and cover the edge cases — a sloppy or all-easy example set is a distractor that looks
helpful but doesn't fix the failure.
Takeaways: ambiguity → add examples, not adjectives. 2–5
consistent input→output pairs lock the format and teach edge-case handling better than prose. Choose examples
that cover the hard cases, keep the format identical across them, and wrap them in
<example> tags.