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Prompt Pack

A Prompt Pack contains phase-specific instructions derived from the Formation Brief. Each phase of a Foundry run gets its own compiled instructions rather than a single general prompt or a hand-written one-off string buried inside a task block.

The important point: prompts are compiled views of structured intent, not hand-written one-off strings hidden inside task blocks. For the reasoning behind compilation and the detail of each phase view, see Prompt Pack Compilation.

Prompt files

A Prompt Pack may contain a prompt file per phase:

text
assessment.md
triage.md
planning.md
execution.md
review.md
retry.md
summarization.md
intent_feedback.md

Traceability

Each prompt should be traceable back to:

  • Formation Brief ID.
  • Source intent records.
  • Product/design references.
  • Compiler version.
  • Prompt template version.
  • Human edits, if any.

This traceability is what lets a reviewer answer "why does the agent say this?" by following the prompt back to the intent it was compiled from.

Human-editable packs

Prompt packs should be inspectable and editable before execution, but edits should be recorded. A human-edited prompt pack is a new compiled artifact with its own digest.

This preserves the immutability guarantee: once a pack drives a run, its exact contents are pinned and identified by digest, so an edit never silently changes what an earlier run was told to do.

Source: Integration Architecture §7.2, §14.3–14.4.

Alloy owns meaning. Foundry owns execution.