# A developer's guide to prompt engineering and LLMs

DevFeed: [A developer's guide to prompt engineering and LLMs](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/a-developer-s-guide-to-prompt-engineering-and-llms-67949.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/generative-ai/prompt-engineering-guide-generative-ai-llms/>)

Author: Albert Ziegler

Published: 2023-07-17T14:27:15Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [GitHub Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/github-engineering.md>)

Topics: [Prompt Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/prompt-engineering.md>), [Large Language Model](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/llm.md>), [Software Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-engineering.md>), [GitHub](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/github.md>), [Visual Studio Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/visual-studio-code.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [ai-insights](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-insights.md>), [ai-ml](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-ml.md>), [developer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developer.md>), [generative-ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/generative-ai.md>), [github-copilot](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/github-copilot.md>), [large-language-models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/large-language-models.md>), [llm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/llm.md>), [llms](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/llms.md>), [prompt-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/prompt-engineering.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains how prompt engineering helps developers build applications with large language models, then describes how GitHub uses repository, file, and IDE context to improve Copilot code completions. It discusses balancing context relevance, model quality, and response speed, along with strategies for assembling prompts and deciding when a completion should stop.

## Source excerpt

Prompt engineering is the art of communicating with a generative AI model. In this article, we'll cover how we approach prompt engineering at GitHub, and how you can use it to build your own LLM-based application.