Home/
Part XIII — Expert Mode: Systems, Agents, and Automation/42. Fine-Tuning vs Prompting vs Retrieval (Decision Framework)/42.1 When fine-tuning helps (style, format, narrow tasks)
42.1 When fine-tuning helps (style, format, narrow tasks)
Overview and links for this section of the guide.
On this page
When It Helps
Fine-tuning excels when you need:
- Consistent style: Brand voice, technical writing style
- Specific format: Custom JSON schemas, proprietary formats
- Narrow domain: Legal contracts, medical terminology
- Reduced prompting: Encode common instructions into weights
Examples
// Good candidates for fine-tuning
✅ "Always respond in our brand voice"
✅ "Output this exact proprietary format"
✅ "Use our internal terminology correctly"
✅ "Follow our coding style guide"
// Bad candidates (use RAG instead)
❌ "Answer questions about our docs"
❌ "Know about products released this week"