45.1 The model ignores instructions

Recency Bias

Models pay most attention to the beginning (System Prompt) and the very end of the prompt.

If you put a critical instruction in the middle of a 5000-token file dump, it gets lost.

Fix: Repeat the critical instruction at the very end. `... [File Content] ...` `REMINDER: Return JSON only.`

Negation Blindness

Models are bad at "Do NOT do X." They see "X" and do it.

Fix: Use positive constraints. - Bad: "Do not use `var`." - Good: "Use `const` or `let`."

Where to go next

• 45.2 Outputs are correct but messy