MindfulAI™ Masterclass Series

The CO-STAR Exercise

Build one real prompt, one element at a time. By the end you'll have a finished, ready-to-use CO-STAR prompt you can copy straight into any GenAI tool.

C

Context

The background the model needs to do this well

What's the situation? What does the model need to know before it can help, that it wouldn't otherwise guess?

O

Objective

The outcome you're actually after

This is the goal behind the request. Why are you asking at all, and what does success look like when you get it?

S

Style & Tone

The voice and the feel, together

Style is the form the writing takes; tone is the feeling behind it. Name both here: whose writing should this sound like, and how should it feel to read?

T

Task

The specific action the model should take

Name the verb and the deliverable. Write, summarize, compare, rewrite — what exactly should the model produce, not just the topic?

A

Audience

Who is actually going to read this

Naming the reader shapes vocabulary, assumed knowledge, and formality more than almost anything else.

R

Response

The format of the output

This is the element people skip most, and the one that saves the most rework.

✓

Your CO-STAR Prompt

Assembled from what you just wrote

Here's your six elements, combined into one finished prompt. Copy it and try it in any GenAI tool.

Ready To Use

Fill in the six elements to see your prompt here.
Reflect — which element was hardest to write? That's usually the one you've been leaving out of prompts without realizing it.