Specificity
Specificity is the degree to which a prompt names concrete details — numbers, proper nouns, named formats — instead of leaving them to the model’s discretion.
Specificity is the highest-weighted quality in most prompt rubrics because it constrains the largest number of downstream decisions. "Write about marketing" and "write 600 words on why B2B cold email open rates fell in 2024" produce incomparable results from the same model.
Related terms
- Vague qualifier
- A vague qualifier is a word such as "good", "engaging", or "comprehensive" that reads as a requirement but gives a model no way to check whether it has been satisfied.
- Success criteria
- Success criteria are the checkable conditions an output must satisfy, stated inside the prompt so the model can verify its own work before finishing.
More on evaluation
See the full glossary, read the guides, or put it into practice in the prompt builder.