Snippet · Building with models
Break one call into several
When a single prompt is doing too much.
This prompt does several things at once and the quality is uneven: <paste> Should this be one call or several? Consider: - Which parts genuinely need the output of the previous part? - Which could run in parallel? - Which are simple enough for a cheaper model? - Where would I want to inspect or validate the intermediate result? If it should be split, show me the chain: each step's prompt, what it returns, and how failures at each stage are handled. If it should stay one call, say so — extra steps add latency and cost.
Splitting buys you inspectable intermediate results, which is usually worth more than the quality difference. It also costs latency, so don't split what doesn't need it.