Down-Skilling: Opus → Haiku Distillation
Translate your reasoning capabilities into explicit, structured instructions that Haiku 4.5 can execute reliably. You are a compiler: your input is context, intent, and domain knowledge; your output is a Haiku-ready prompt with decision procedures and diverse examples.
Core Principle
Opus infers from WHY. Haiku executes from WHAT and HOW.
Your job: convert implicit reasoning, contextual judgment, and domain expertise into explicit procedures, concrete decision trees, and demonstrative examples. Every inference you would make silently, Haiku needs stated explicitly.
Economics: Why Examples Are Free
Opus input costs ~6× Haiku input. A task that costs $1.00 on Opus costs ~$0.17 on Haiku — but only if Haiku gets it right on the first try. One retry wipes the savings; two retries makes Haiku more expensive.
The math that matters:
- Input tokens are cheap (Haiku: $0.80/MTok input vs $4.00/MTok output)
- Adding 2,000 tokens of examples costs ~$0.0016 per call
- A single failed-then-retried call costs ~$0.008+ in wasted output
- Examples pay for themselves if they prevent even 1-in-5 retries
What this means for prompt design:
- If you're sending an 8K token document, you can afford 3-4K tokens of
examples — the examples cost less than the document itself
- Lengthy input prompts don't inflate output costs — output pricing is
independent of input length
- The constraint is not token cost but diminishing returns: after 5-7
examples, additional examples rarely improve performance
Bottom line: Every example that prevents a Haiku misfire saves 5-25× its input cost in wasted output tokens. Under-investing in examples is the most expensive mistake in down-skilling.
Activation
When triggered, perform these steps:
- Extract task context from the conversation: what is the user trying
to accomplish? What domain knowledge applies? What quality criteria matter?
- Identify the reasoning gaps — what would Opus infer automatically
that Haiku needs spelled out? Common gaps:
- Ambiguity resolution (Opus picks the sensible interpretation; Haiku
needs a decision rule)
- Quality judgment (Opus knows "good enough"; Haiku needs explicit
criteria)
- Edge case handling (Opus reasons through novel situations; Haiku
needs enumerated cases)
- Output calibration (Opus matches tone/length intuitively; Haiku
needs explicit constraints)
- Generate the distilled prompt following the structure in
[Prompt Architecture](#prompt-architecture)
- Generate 4-7 diverse examples following the principles in
[Example Design](#example-design) — this is the highest-leverage step
- Audit your example set before delivering. Two checks, both must pass:
- Source-anchoring: for each example output, every concrete fact
(named technology, number, comparison, quoted phrase) is inferrable from that example's input. If you can't reproduce the output knowing only the input, either add the detail to the input or remove it from the output. Invented facts in examples cause Haiku to copy the invention pattern at runtime.
- Length calibration: example output lengths sit inside the stated
output range. If your rule says "60–90 words" but your examples average 35, the rule will not hold — Haiku follows the example central tendency.
If either check fails, regenerate the offending examples before delivering. Examples beat rules; misaligned examples beat aligned rules.
- Deliver the complete Haiku-ready prompt as a copyable artifact or
file, including system prompt and user prompt components as appropriate
Prompt Architecture
Structure every distilled prompt with these components in this order. Haiku responds best to this specific sequencing:
<role>
[Single sentence: who Haiku is and what it does]
</role>
<task>
[2-3 sentences: the specific task, its purpose, and the deliverable]
</task>
<rules>
[Numbered list of explicit constraints. Be precise about:]
- Output format (JSON schema, markdown structure, etc.)
- Length bounds (word/token counts, not vague "brief"/"detailed")
- Required elements (must-include fields or sections)
- Prohibited behaviors (specific failure modes to avoid)
- Decision rules for ambiguous cases
</rules>
<process>
[Numbered steps. Maximum 7 steps. Each step is one action.]
[Include validation checkpoints: "Before proceeding, verify X"]
[Include decision points: "If X, do Y. If Z, do W."]
</process>
<examples>
[4-7 diverse examples showing input → output pairs]
[This section should be the LARGEST part of the prompt]
[See Example Design section for distribution requirements]
</examples>
<context>
[Task-specific data, reference material, or domain knowledge]
[Use labels: [Context], [Policy], [Reference]]
</context>Haiku Optimization Rules
Apply these when generating any Haiku-targeted prompt:
Structure & Syntax
- Use XML tags to delimit every section — Haiku respects labeled boundaries
- Keep sentences under 25 words where possible
- One instruction per sentence; split compound instructions
- Use numbered steps, not prose paragraphs, for procedures
- Specify token/word budgets explicitly: "respond in 80-120 words"
Reasoning Support
- Replace open-ended judgment with decision rubrics:
BAD: "Assess whether the code is production-ready" GOOD: "Check: (a) no TODO comments, (b) all functions have error handling, (c) no hardcoded secrets. Score pass/fail per item."
- Bound reasoning depth: "Think in 3-5 steps, then give your answer"
- Provide a fallback for uncertainty: "If you cannot determine X,
respond with: 'UNCERTAIN: [brief reason]'"
Context Management
- Front-load critical instructions (Haiku attends strongly to position)
- Budget rule of thumb: instructions + rules ≤ 800 tokens, examples get
the rest. For a task processing an 8K document, 3-4K tokens of examples is well within budget and pays for itself in reliability
- Pass only the 1-3 most relevant context snippets, not full documents
- Use explicit delimiters between context and instructions
Output Control
- Require structured output (JSON, labeled sections) for extractable results
- Provide an output template Haiku can fill in
- Specify what comes first in the response: "Begin your response with..."
- For classification tasks, enumerate all valid categories
Failure Prevention
- Anticipate Haiku's common failure modes and add guardrails:
- Hallucination: "Use ONLY information from the provided context.
If the answer is not in the context, say 'Not found in sources.'"
- Verbosity: "Maximum 150 words. Do not add preamble or caveats."
- Format drift: Include the output schema in both rules and examples
- Instruction skipping: Number all constraints; reference them in
the process steps: "Apply rules 2-4 from <rules>"
Example Design
Examples are the single highest-leverage investment in a Haiku prompt. Rules tell Haiku what to do; examples show it what "done right" looks like. When rules and examples conflict, Haiku follows the examples. When rules are ambiguous, Haiku extrapolates from examples. This makes examples the primary steering mechanism — not a supplement to rules, but the dominant signal.
Given the economics (see [Economics](#economics-why-examples-are-free)), you should invest heavily here. A prompt with 800 tokens of rules and 3,000 tokens of examples will outperform one with 2,000 tokens of rules and 500 tokens of examples almost every time.
Minimum Example Count: 4
Generate 4-7 diverse examples per distilled prompt. Fewer than 4 is under-investing. The marginal cost of each example is negligible compared to the reliability improvement. Use this distribution:
| # | Role | Purpose | |---|------|---------| | 1 | Typical case | The most common, straightforward input. Establishes the baseline pa