# Creating Prompts

Prompts control how the AI translates (tone, domain, rules, formatting).

### What makes a good translation prompt

* Target audience and tone (formal/informal)
* Domain constraints (legal, medical, technical)
* Rules for numbers, punctuation, terminology
* Instructions to preserve tags and placeholders

:::caution If your text contains formatting or CAT tool tags, instruct the model to preserve them exactly. :::

### Quick checklist

* Specify the language direction (source → target)
* Specify style and audience (formal/informal, US/UK spelling, etc.)
* Tell the model what to do with **tags/placeholders** (keep, don’t reorder, don’t delete)
* Tell the model what to do with terminology (use termbase terms when provided)

### Next

* [Prompt Manager](/help/ai-translation/prompt-library.md)


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://supervertaler.gitbook.io/help/ai-translation/prompts.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.