Use clear structure or delimiters inside a long description
When a tool description needs to cover several distinct concerns -- what it does, when to use it, when not to, an example -- breaking it into clearly labeled or delimited sections (short paragraphs, a labeled "Example:" sentence, explicit "Do NOT use this for..." sentence) is easier for the model to parse reliably than one dense paragraph.
A description with clearly separated sentences: one describing behavior, one giving the trigger phrases, one giving an explicit "do not use for" exclusion, one giving an example.
A single 300-word run-on paragraph mixing behavior, triggers, exclusions, and examples with no sentence-level separation.
General prompt-structuring best practice, consistent with Anthropic's broader guidance (mirrored on subagentprompts.com) that clear delimiters/structure improve reliability in long prompts generally, applied here specifically to tool descriptions.
created 2026-07-02 08:28:30 · JSON