Resource
Fix Conflicting Instructions in a Prompt
How to surface contradictions like 'keep it short' and 'be highly detailed' that quietly produce inconsistent AI output.
Prompt Cleanup Examples (Before & After)
A set of before-and-after examples showing exactly what prompt cleanup removes — and what it deliberately leaves alone.
Overview
The fastest way to understand prompt cleanup is to see it. This resource collects clear before-and-after examples: a repetitive marketing prompt, a contradictory support prompt, and a noisy templated prompt. Each shows what gets removed (duplicates, restated rules, empty sections) and what stays (every distinct instruction). Load the sample below into the Prompt Cleaner to see the same transformation on a prompt you can edit.
How to use this resource
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Load the example
Open this sample in the Prompt Cleaner — it contains duplicates, restated rules, filler, and one contradiction.
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Compare the three modes
Run Safe, then Balanced, then Aggressive, watching the output and report change. Each mode removes progressively more.
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Spot the contradiction
Open the report to see 'keep replies short' flagged against 'provide a detailed explanation' — the cleaner shows both and leaves the choice to you.
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Try your own prompt
Replace the example with one of your real prompts and run the same comparison.
Why This Works
- Examples make the removal vs rewriting distinction concrete — every output line came from the input
- Running all three modes on one prompt shows exactly how Safe, Balanced, and Aggressive differ
- Seeing a contradiction flagged rather than resolved builds the right expectation: the tool informs, you decide
Best for
- Anyone new to prompt cleanup who wants to see it work first
- Comparing the three cleanup modes on the same example
- Understanding the line between removal (cleanup) and rewriting (a different tool)
Not for
- A reference spec — this is a hands-on example, not documentation
- Generating new prompts — these examples are for cleaning existing ones
Use cases
- Learning what prompt cleanup removes before running it on your own prompts
- Showing a teammate the difference between cleaning and rewriting a prompt
- Seeing how a contradiction (short vs detailed) is surfaced rather than silently resolved
FAQ
Does the prompt cleaner fix contradictions or just point them out?
It points them out and leaves the call to you. In this sample, 'Keep replies short and concise' and 'Provide a detailed, thorough explanation' are surfaced in the report as a flagged tension rather than silently resolved, so the Prompt Cleaner never picks a winner. You decide which instruction to drop, then run the cleaned prompt in your own assistant.
What's the difference between the safe, balanced, and aggressive cleanup modes?
Each removes progressively more, and running all three on this one sample is the point. Safe, Balanced, then Aggressive strip more of the duplicates and restated rules like 'Be polite' and 'Always be polite and courteous', with the output and report changing at each level. Every surviving line still traces back to the input — cleanup removes, it never invents new wording.
Will running cleanup on this example rewrite my instructions?
Cleanup removes, it does not rewrite. Every output line here came from the input — near-duplicate lines such as 'Show empathy' and 'Be empathetic and understanding' get collapsed, but no distinct instruction is reworded or generated. For rewriting a prompt for strength, that is the Prompt Rewriter's job; this resource only demonstrates removal.
More resources from Prompt Cleaner
Resource
Remove Repetition from a Prompt
A worked example of stripping duplicate and restated instructions out of a prompt that says the same thing five different ways.
Resource
Clean Up a ChatGPT Prompt
Prompts pasted into ChatGPT over time pick up restated rules and politeness. Here is how to declutter them in a few seconds.
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Convert scattered bug notes, Slack messages, or user complaints into structured engineering tasks with reproduction steps, severity, and root cause hypothesis.
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Agent Task Template
A reusable AI agent task template with variables for objective, context, available tools, constraints, success criteria, failure handling, and output format.
Related tools
Tool
Prompt Cleaner
Remove duplicate and redundant instructions, strip noise, and flag contradictions in any prompt.