To write better prompts for Claude Opus 4.6, start with a clear task statement and explicit constraints. Treat your prompt like an engineering ticket: objective, inputs, constraints, and definition of done. If you need a structured output, specify the schema and add rules like “output JSON only” or “include these keys and types,” then validate the output on your side.
Opus 4.6 also supports extended thinking options, and Anthropic recommends using adaptive thinking settings (where available) rather than older manual thinking configurations. Practically, that means you should decide whether the task needs deeper reasoning (planning, multi-step debugging, architecture tradeoffs) and enable the relevant setting; for simpler tasks (format conversion, short summaries), keep it off to reduce latency and token usage. Always cap max output tokens and set sensible stop conditions, especially with large output capability.
For production reliability, combine strong prompting with retrieval. Put your docs, policies, and code patterns in Milvus or managed Zilliz Cloud, retrieve the top relevant chunks, and include them in a “Context” section. Then instruct Opus 4.6 to use only that context and to say “I don’t know” when the context is insufficient. This reduces hallucinations and makes outcomes much more consistent.