AI engineering glossary · Prompt context engineering
What is output format specification?
Output format specification: The part of a prompt that states exactly what shape the answer must take, such as length, fields, language, or a schema. Being explicit here saves parsing effort later and makes outputs comparable across runs.
Output format specification: an example
'Reply with a JSON object with keys city, pincode and confidence (0 to 1). Output nothing else.'
Related terms
More Prompt context engineering terms
- Output parser
- Output repair
- Parallel tool calls
- Plan-and-Solve prompting
- Position bias
- Presence penalty
- Program-aided language models
- Prompt
Where you learn it
Output format specification is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.