# Prompt Style Guide

## Goal
- All model-facing prompts must be Markdown templates under `oclaw/prompts/`.
- Business code must inject variables only; no long inline prompt strings.

## Template Contract
- File format: `.md` with frontmatter.
- Required frontmatter keys: `title`, `summary`, `read_when`.
- Variables use `{{var_name}}`.
- Missing variables must fail in strict mode.

## Required Section Order
1. Identity and objective
2. Input constraints
3. Execution rules
4. Output format
5. Safety and prohibitions
6. Optional runtime context blocks

## Rules
- Use imperative instructions: must / must not / only when.
- Keep deterministic section ordering for cache stability.
- Prefer machine-parseable blocks for injected context.
- Do not embed raw JSON protocol examples unless needed.
- Keep bilingual copies as separate template files when wording diverges.