XML-Tag Pattern for Mixed Prompt Instructions and Variable Inputs

From the same Anthropic prompt engineering guide. The canonical XML-tagging recipe for any prompt that mixes instructions, context, examples, and variable inputs - used throughout the cookbook and the prompt library.

<instructions>
[Tell Claude exactly what to do, in order.]
</instructions>

<context>
[Background, role, constraints. Long documents go above the question.]
</context>

<examples>
<example>
  <input>...</input>
  <output>...</output>
</example>
<example>
  <input>...</input>
  <output>...</output>
</example>
</examples>

<input>
[The user's variable data for this specific call.]
</input>

Guidance from the page: use consistent, descriptive tag names across your prompts; nest tags when content has substructure; put longform data near the top of long prompts and the immediate task near the bottom.

Source: https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/build-with-claude/prompt-engineering/overview