conversation-design

lesson

prompt-engineering llm conversation-design dangling-reference debugging system-prompt

461 tok

Deleting a section from a multi-phase LLM prompt leaves dangling references, and the model improvises at the dangling pointer instead of failing

An LLM prompt kept 'Proceed to Phase 2' after Phase 2 was deleted; the model improvised at the dangling pointer, merging remaining steps (two competing asks in one turn) and narrating contradictory transitions. Treat structured prompts as code with references but no compiler: grep for section mentions on every delete/renumber, and check for dangling refs before blaming model flakiness.

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