Chain of Thought
Make the model show its work.
The Pattern
Section titled “The Pattern”Instead of asking for an answer directly, prompt the model to reason through the problem step by step before reaching a conclusion.
When to Use
Section titled “When to Use”- Complex reasoning tasks
- Math or logic problems
- Multi-step decisions
- When you need to verify the reasoning, not just the answer
Implementation
Section titled “Implementation”Add explicit instructions:
- “Think through this step by step”
- “Before answering, reason through…”
- “Show your reasoning, then conclude”
Why It Works
Section titled “Why It Works”Models are more accurate when they externalize intermediate reasoning. The act of writing out steps helps catch errors that would slip through in a single jump to conclusion.
Anti-patterns
Section titled “Anti-patterns”- Using CoT for simple factual lookups (overhead without benefit)
- Not reading the reasoning (defeats the purpose)
- Accepting conclusions that don’t follow from the stated reasoning