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Prompt Engineering

Master the art of communicating with Shadowfax to unlock its full analytical potential.

Why Prompting Matters​

Shadowfax is an AI-powered data analyst that transforms natural language into sophisticated analyses. The key to success? Effective prompting. Well-crafted prompts lead to accurate analyses, while vague prompts lead to confusion and suboptimal results.

The difference between:

"Show me sales data" → Agent has to guess what you mean
"@[sales_2024] Calculate monthly revenue with MoM growth rates for Q3" → Clear, actionable request

What You'll Learn​

This section contains two comprehensive guides:

Learning to Prompt Better​

A complete guide covering:

  • How Shadowfax's AI agent works (Workbook, SQL views, reactive system)
  • The three-layer context model (@mentions, Knowledge, prompts)
  • Slash commands: /plan, /visualize, /recommendations, /taxonomy
  • C.L.E.A.R. framework for effective prompts
  • Advanced techniques and troubleshooting
  • Working with Shadowfax's Vega-powered visualizations

Perfect for: Understanding the principles behind effective prompting and mastering advanced techniques.

Useful Prompts​

A practical template library with 100+ copy-paste ready prompts for:

  • Data exploration and quality checks
  • Cleaning and preparation
  • Metrics and KPIs
  • Time-based analysis
  • Segmentation and cohorts
  • Joins and relationships
  • Advanced visualizations
  • Statistical analysis

Perfect for: Quick reference when you need a prompt for a specific task.

Core Concepts​

Context is King ​

Shadowfax needs three types of context:

  1. Knowledge (persistent): Business rules, KPI definitions, data dictionaries
  2. @Mentions (per-prompt): Which specific data tables to analyze
  3. Prompts (per-request): What to do with that data

Slash Commands ​

  • /plan: Review the agent's approach before execution
  • /visualize: Create sophisticated charts with Vega
  • /recommendations: Get suggestions for next analyses
  • /taxonomy: Discover data categories and create classification AI tables

The Workbook Advantage ​

  • Every transformation is a SQL view you can inspect
  • Fully reactive: changes propagate automatically
  • Build iteratively and verify at each step

Quick Start​

New to prompting? Start with Learning to Prompt Better to understand the fundamentals.

Need a specific prompt? Jump to Useful Prompts and find templates for your use case.

Working on complex analysis? Use the /plan command to collaborate with the agent on your approach.

Remember: Effective prompting = Better Context + Clear Instructions + Iteration

Happy prompting!