Delimiter
A delimiter is a marker such as an XML tag, a row of dashes, or triple backticks that separates one part of a prompt from another.
Delimiters matter most when a prompt mixes instructions with material to be processed. Without a clear boundary, a model can read a sentence inside a pasted document as an instruction — which is the mechanism behind most prompt injection.
Related terms
- XML tags in prompts
- XML tags in prompts are paired markers such as `<context>` and `</context>` used to label each section of a prompt so the model can tell them apart.
- Prompt injection
- Prompt injection is an attack in which instructions hidden inside content a model processes cause it to ignore its original instructions.
More on prompt structure
See the full glossary, read the guides, or put it into practice in the prompt builder.