Chapter 1: Prompt Versioning

Prompts as Code

# prompts/customer_support/v2.1.0.yaml
name: customer_support_agent
version: 2.1.0
description: "Customer support assistant prompt"
author: ml-team@company.com
created: 2024-01-15

system_prompt: |
  You are a helpful customer support agent for TechCorp.
  
  Guidelines:
  - Be polite and professional
  - Only answer questions about our products
  - If unsure, escalate to human support
  - Never share confidential information

user_template: |
  Customer: {customer_name}
  Subscription: {subscription_tier}
  Query: {query}
  
  Previous context: {context}

parameters:
  temperature: 0.7
  max_tokens: 500
  model: gpt-4

evaluation:
  golden_dataset: tests/customer_support_golden.json
  metrics:
    - helpfulness > 4.0
    - accuracy > 0.9

Prompt Registry

class PromptRegistry:
    def __init__(self, storage_path: str):
        self.storage_path = storage_path
        self.prompts = {}
    
    def register(self, prompt: Prompt) -> str:
        """Register a new prompt version."""
        key = f"{prompt.name}/{prompt.version}"
        self.prompts[key] = prompt
        self._save_to_storage(prompt)
        return key
    
    def get(self, name: str, version: str = "latest") -> Prompt:
        """Get a prompt by name and version."""
        if version == "latest":
            version = self._get_latest_version(name)
        return self.prompts.get(f"{name}/{version}")
    
    def get_production(self, name: str) -> Prompt:
        """Get the production version of a prompt."""
        metadata = self._get_metadata(name)
        return self.get(name, metadata.get("production_version"))

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Next: Chapter 2: A/B Testing Prompts