Prompt Engineering

Structured Summary Prompt — the Anatomy

The blocks a reliable summary prompt needs: source guidance, a fixed section skeleton, length budgets, fidelity rules, and quote handling.

Open in Structured Summary Prompt

Overview

Most summary prompts are the word "summarize" with hope attached — and the result skips points, pads sections, and invents context. The reliable anatomy has five blocks: SOURCE guidance that teaches how to read this kind of text, an OUTPUT STRUCTURE with named sections in a fixed order, LENGTH RULES with countable budgets, FIDELITY RULES that draw the invention line, and QUOTE RULES. This resource loads a support-case handoff — sectioned by the source's own logic (Issue, What Was Tried, Resolution State, Follow-Ups) — the cleanest demonstration of every block doing its job.

How to use this resource

Read each block's job

SOURCE teaches reading, STRUCTURE fixes the shape, LENGTH caps the budget, FIDELITY draws the invention line, QUOTES decide what stays verbatim.
Note the source-specific sections

Issue / What Was Tried / Resolution State / Follow-Ups exist because the source is a support conversation — switch the source type and watch the skeleton change.
Swap in your own scenario

Change the goal and source; the structure preview shows the new skeleton before you generate.

Why This Works

Named sections in a fixed order make summaries comparable across runs
Each block closes a specific failure mode — skipped points, padding, invention, paraphrased commitments
Source-aware skeletons beat one-size-fits-all summary templates

Best for

Anyone whose summary prompt is currently one word long
Teams standardizing summaries across people and models
Sources with their own logic — cases, incidents, threads

Not for

Pulling discrete values into fields — that's the Extraction Prompt Generator
Generating new documents — summarization compresses an existing source

Use cases

Learning the structure before writing your own summary prompts
Auditing an existing summary prompt against the five blocks
Handing off support cases in a shape the next agent can trust

FAQ

Why are the summary sections Issue / What Was Tried / Resolution State / Follow-Ups specifically?

Because the loaded source is a customer support conversation, and the OUTPUT STRUCTURE is sectioned by that source's own logic. Switch the source type and the skeleton changes — a support case gets these four. The SOURCE block even teaches reading guidance: "separate what the customer reported from what the agent concluded." The structured-summary-prompt builds the shaped prompt; you run it on your own source.

How does this prompt stop a summary from padding or inventing content?

Two blocks do that work. LENGTH RULES cap each section at 1–2 sentences and say "never pad a thin section — a short faithful section beats a full invented one." FIDELITY RULES draw the invention line: "summarize only what appears in the source." QUOTE RULES require paraphrase, no direct quotes. Each block closes one failure mode; you still confirm the summary matches your source.

Can I use this to pull specific values into fields instead of summarizing?

This compresses an existing source into prose sections; it doesn't extract discrete values into fields. Pulling out named values is the Extraction Prompt Generator's job, per the notFor. The ACTION ITEMS block even omits its section entirely when the source contains none, because "a topic discussed is not an action item." Reach for it when you want a faithful compression, not a field-by-field data pull.

Customize This Resource

Opens this setup in Structured Summary Prompt. Generate to get the full summary prompt — then adjust the structure, length, and fidelity rules.

Open in Structured Summary Prompt

Prompt Template

Copy it as-is, or use Open in Structured Summary Prompt to load it pre-filled and customize it with your own context.

TASK
Summarize long support conversations into a handoff record for the next agent.
Summarize the source text in the input. Do not write new content — compress what is there.

SOURCE
The source is a customer support conversation.
Reading guidance: Separate what the customer reported from what the agent concluded — they are different facts.
Emphasis: Surface the issue, the resolution state, and what happens next.

OUTPUT STRUCTURE
Use exactly these markdown sections, in this order:
## Issue
The problem in the customer's terms.
## What Was Tried
Steps taken by customer and agent.
## Resolution State
Solved, workaround, or still open — as of the last message.
## Follow-Ups
Promises made and what the customer expects next.

LENGTH RULES
- Brevity wins: when in doubt, cut. Every sentence must earn its place.
- Per section: 1–2 sentences each.
- Never pad a thin section — a short faithful section beats a full invented one.

FIDELITY RULES
- Summarize only what appears in the source — do not add outside knowledge.
- Keep interpretation minimal; when you interpret, make it recognizable as interpretation.
- Preserve numbers, dates, and names exactly as written.

QUOTE RULES
- Paraphrase everything — do not include direct quotes.

ACTION ITEMS
- After the sections above, add an "## Action Items" section.
- One bullet per action item: owner (when stated) — task — deadline (when stated).
- Only commitments actually made in the source — a topic discussed is not an action item.
- If the source contains no action items, omit the section.

OUTPUT RULES
- Return only the summary in markdown — no preamble ("Here is the summary"), no closing commentary.
- Use the section headings exactly as written above.
- Do not address the reader or the author — summarize the source.

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Build summary prompts with fixed sections, length caps, and no-invention fidelity rules.

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