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Strong prompts cut iteration. Prompt Refinery adds the context and structure that get you a useful answer the first time, and shows why each change matters so the lesson sticks.

Sample refinement. The profile, draft, and refined prompt below are pre-written so you can see how the tool works before signing in.

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Law Librarian

Refinements use this context to tailor every prompt. In the live app, you edit your own profile from the header.

Role: Reference and research librarian at a law school
Expertise: Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg Law, HeinOnline; supports faculty research and 1L research instruction; comfortable across primary and secondary sources; tracks current developments in core teaching subjects
Communication preferences: Plain, active voice. Concrete sources over abstract description. Bluebook citations. Note authority hierarchy when it matters.
Output defaults: Numbered steps for research procedures; bulleted lists when comparing sources; flag jurisdiction-specific issues; surface assumptions explicitly.

Draft prompt

Domain: Legal Education

A faculty colleague asked me for sources on whether non-competes are enforceable in California right now. She's refreshing her Employment Law class. Need to put together a pathfinder.

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Refined prompt

You are a reference librarian at a law school preparing a one-page research pathfinder for a faculty colleague who is refreshing her Employment Law class on California non-compete enforceability.

Audience

Faculty member with deep subject-matter expertise
Will use the pathfinder to update teaching materials and decide what to assign
Wants current primary sources, the leading scholarly commentary, and a sense of where the live tensions are for class discussion

Scope

California-specific analysis, with federal preemption considerations called out
Current state of the law as of the present date, noting recent changes
Cover the FTC's 2024 Non-Compete Rule and the Northern District of Texas decision in Ryan LLC v. FTC that vacated it
Address AB 1076 (effective January 1, 2024) and how it interacts with the existing Bus. & Prof. Code §16600 framework, including the §16600.5 notice requirement

Deliverable structure

One-page pathfinder with a tiered authority list (binding primary, persuasive primary, secondary commentary)
For each source: full Bluebook citation, a one-sentence "why it matters for teaching," and a database link (Westlaw or Lexis for cases and statutes; HeinOnline for law review articles)
A short "discussion-worthy tensions" section flagging open or contested questions worth surfacing in class — for example, the doctrinal status of the FTC rule after Ryan LLC, or how §16600.5's notice requirement interacts with at-will employment

Tone

Practical, current, source-anchored
Assumes faculty-level subject knowledge
Avoid editorializing about policy

Produce the pathfinder now. If any cited rule or case has materially changed in the last 60 days, flag the source and the date.

What Changed

Why

The original asked for "sources" with no deliverable, audience, or context. Naming the format (one-page pathfinder) and the audience (faculty colleague refreshing a class) gives the model a concrete frame to fill, and shifts the output toward teaching-ready materials instead of a generic literature dump.

Why

Non-compete law is a state-by-state mess. Anchoring scope to "California-specific, with federal preemption considerations" prevents the model from sliding into a fifty-state survey or the wrong state's framework.

Why

The FTC's 2024 Non-Compete Rule has been a moving target — adopted, then vacated by the Northern District of Texas in Ryan LLC. Without naming both the rule and the case that struck it down, the model is likely to produce stale or misleading guidance about the rule's current effect.

Why

A pathfinder lives or dies by its source ranking. Asking for tiered authority (binding primary, persuasive primary, secondary commentary) forces the model to produce a research-grade list instead of a flat bibliography.

Why

For a teaching pathfinder the most useful "extra" is a section that surfaces where the doctrine is unsettled or contested. Asking for "discussion-worthy tensions" produces material that drops directly into a class plan, instead of a generic policy summary.

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