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Part XV — Troubleshooting, Checklists, and Reference/45. Common Failure Modes (And Fix Recipes)/45.4 It works once but not reliably
45.4 It works once but not reliably
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Temperature
If your prompt works 8/10 times, your temperature is too high. - **Code/JSON:** Temp = 0.0 or 0.1. - **Creative Writing:** Temp = 0.7.
Sampling Bias
Some prompts are "fragile." A slight change in phrasing breaks them. Fix: Use few-shot examples. They stabilize the model's understanding of the task.