AI engineering glossary · Prompt context engineering
What is task decomposition?
Task decomposition: Splitting a complicated request into smaller steps, each handled by its own prompt or its own stage in one prompt. Smaller steps are easier to check and to fix, and they often give more accurate results than one large instruction.
Task decomposition: an example
Instead of one prompt to 'analyse this annual report', run three: extract key figures, compare with last year, then write a summary.
Related terms
More Prompt context engineering terms
- Template variable
- Thinking budget
- Token budget
- Token counting
- Token pricing
- Tool choice
- Tool description
- Tool result message
Where you learn it
Task decomposition is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.