The Prompt Craft Manual — A Framework for Reliable Prompting

A single, self-contained manual (manual.md, roughly 25 printed pages) presenting prompt engineering as a repeatable six-stage pipeline rather than a list of disconnected tips: task decomposition (with four named decomposition patterns and a fully worked example), a zero-shot-vs-few-shot decision framework, output-format constraint techniques, an iterative-refinement loop for going from a rough draft to a stable prompt, a catalogue of 15 named failure patterns (each with symptom, likely cause, and fix), and a closing checklist that compresses the whole method into a few minutes of review. One running worked example — turning meeting notes into action items — is threaded through the later parts so the same task is shown at different stages of maturity. Includes a short glossary. Written as a single continuous document meant to be read once start to finish, then used as a reference afterward (the failure catalogue as a lookup table, the checklist before shipping any prompt). Intended for anyone writing prompts who wants a structured method rather than a grab-bag of tips; all examples are original.