Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
1–10 of 160 posts
Re: Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
#2That first image, “Structure Prompts with XML”, just screams AI-written. The bullet lists don’t line up, the numbering starts at (2), random bolding. Why would anyone trust hallucinated documentation for prompting? At least with AI-generated software documentation, the context is the code itself, being regurgitated into bulleted english. But for instructions on using the LLM itself, it seems pretty lazy to not hand-type the preferred usage and human-learned tips.
Re: Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
#3Anthropic’s tool calling was exposed as XML tags at the beginning, before they introduced the JSON API. I expect they’re still templating those tool calls into XML before passing to the model’s context
Re: Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
#4That first image, “Structure Prompts with XML”, just screams AI-written. The bullet lists don’t line up, the numbering starts at (2), random bolding. Why would anyone trust hallucinated documentation for prompting? At least with AI-generated software documentation, the context is the code itself, being regurgitated into bulleted english. But for instructions on using the LLM itself, it seems pretty lazy to not hand-t…
It looks like a screenshot from the Claude desktop app, so I don't think the author is trying to disguise the AI origin of the marerial
Re: Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
#5That first image, “Structure Prompts with XML”, just screams AI-written. The bullet lists don’t line up, the numbering starts at (2), random bolding. Why would anyone trust hallucinated documentation for prompting? At least with AI-generated software documentation, the context is the code itself, being regurgitated into bulleted english. But for instructions on using the LLM itself, it seems pretty lazy to not hand-t…
No, it’s two screenshots from Anthropic documentation, stitched together: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/build-with-claude/prompt...
The post even links to that page, although there’s a typo in the link.
Re: Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
#6Anthropic’s tool calling was exposed as XML tags at the beginning, before they introduced the JSON API. I expect they’re still templating those tool calls into XML before passing to the model’s context
Yeah like I remember prior to reasoning models, their guidance was to use tags to give models space for reasoning prior to an answer (incidentally, also the reason I didn't quite understand the fuss with reasoning models at first). It's always been XML with Anthropic.
Re: Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
#7A very minor porcelain on some of the agent input UX could present this structure for you. Instead of a single chat window, have four: task, context, constraints, output format.
And while we're at it, instead of wall-of-text, I also feel like outputs could be structured at least into thinking and content, maybe other sections.
Re: Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
#8I thought the goal was minimal instruction to let Claude determine the best way to solve the problem. Not adding this to my workflow anytime soon.
Re: Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
#9A very minor porcelain on some of the agent input UX could present this structure for you. Instead of a single chat window, have four: task, context, constraints, output format. And while we're at it, instead of wall-of-text, I also feel like outputs could be structured at least into thinking and content, maybe other sections.
[deleted]
Re: Why XML tags are so fundamental to Claude
#10This sounds like something for harnesses, not end users. Are they really expecting us to format prompts as XML??