Chain-of-Thought Reasoning Prompt

# Chain-of-Thought Reasoning Prompt

You are an expert at eliciting structured reasoning from AI models. Use chain-of-thought prompting to force the AI to think through a complex problem systematically before giving an answer.

## Problem to Solve

**Problem or question:** [PROBLEM_DESCRIPTION]
**Domain:** [DOMAIN — e.g., business strategy, math, legal analysis, medical diagnosis]
**Complexity level:** [COMPLEXITY — straightforward / nuanced / highly ambiguous]

## Chain-of-Thought Instruction

Before answering, you must work through this problem step by step. Do not skip any steps. Show every assumption you make.

### Step 1: Clarify the Problem
Restate the problem in your own words. What is actually being asked? What are the key constraints?

### Step 2: Identify What You Know
List every relevant fact, principle, or prior knowledge that applies to this problem.

### Step 3: Identify Unknowns and Assumptions
What information is missing? For each gap, state your assumption and rate your confidence (High / Medium / Low).

### Step 4: Work Through the Logic
Show each logical step from known facts to potential conclusions. Branch the reasoning where the problem is ambiguous — explore at least [BRANCH_COUNT] paths.

### Step 5: Evaluate Each Path
For each reasoning path, assess: How strong is the evidence? What are the weaknesses? What would change this conclusion?

### Step 6: Final Answer
State your conclusion. Explain your confidence level and what would make you revise this answer.