noun · AI concept
Prompt
also called input
Everything you hand the AI before it starts writing. Your question is only one part of it.
The complete input sent to a model for a single request, including instructions, history, supplied documents and the current question.
The full text the model receives for one request: system instructions, earlier messages, tool results, files and your latest message. The model continues this text, so anything not in it does not exist for the model.
Real-life example
You ask a tool the same question in two chats and get different quality. In one chat you had pasted your notes earlier, in the other you had not. The question was identical, but the prompt the model saw was not. Most prompt problems come from what is missing, not from the wording.
Where the analogy breaks
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A prompt is more than the sentence you type. The app adds instructions, history and files before it sends anything.
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There are no magic words. Clear wording helps, but giving the model the facts and examples it needs matters more.
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Longer is not better. Every extra line costs tokens and can bury the part that counts.