Station 1 · Block 03
The Briefing
Give the right instructions for better results
DescriptionDiscernment
Asking the wrong questions leads to bad answers — that's not the fault of AI.
The briefing canvas
Anthropic lists ten components of a prompt. For most regular tasks, these four fields carry the load.
- Task contextWho you are, what kind of business, what role Claude is taking
- Background dataDocuments and facts Claude could not possibly know
- Task and rulesThe task plus the limits: length, tone, what must not appear
- ExamplesA real earlier solution from your own house
Source: ClaudeOnboarding · Station 1
Context is what Claude could not possibly know. Hand-holding is how it should think.
“Reply professionally and empathetically” is hand-holding: Claude does that anyway. “The customer has been with us for six years” is context: Claude can’t know it.
Source: ClaudeOnboarding · Station 1
Live demo
Four passes, one case
Hartmann Packaging and its customer Nordfrucht. One delivery is unusable. Each pass adds one part; nothing is taken away.
- 01 Pass 1The task only
- 02 Pass 2Plus task context and background data
- 03 Pass 3Plus rules
- 04 Pass 4Plus an example
Source: ClaudeOnboarding · Station 1
What changed from pass to pass
- 01 Pass 1Reads cleanly and would suit any business on earth. The trap: it looks good enough.
- 02 Pass 2For the first time it is your company. The cause is in there because you supplied it.
- 03 Pass 3Length, tone and limits are right. The €2,000 shows up because you named it.
- 04 Pass 4Now it sounds like Andrea Hartmann.
Source: ClaudeOnboarding · Station 1
Don’t believe it — interrogate it
A confidently worded error is more dangerous than an obvious one.
- 01 Cite itWhere does it say that?
- 02 Cross-checkAgain, asked differently
- 03 Spot-checkActually verify one item, rather than trusting the whole
Source: ClaudeOnboarding · Station 1