Dictionary
Zero-Shot Prompting
Asking a model to do a task with no examples in the prompt.
1 min readupdated 2026-07-04
/ quick answer
Zero-shot relies purely on the model's pretraining. Cheap and simple; struggles on formatting-sensitive or domain-specific tasks compared to few-shot. Asking a model to do a task with no examples in the prompt.
Asking a model to do a task with no examples in the prompt. Zero-shot relies purely on the model's pretraining. Cheap and simple; struggles on formatting-sensitive or domain-specific tasks compared to few-shot. In practice: 'Classify this ticket as bug/feature/question.' — no examples given. This dictionary node is part of the Onexial knowledge graph and links to related concepts, workflows and tools below.
Definition
Zero-shot relies purely on the model's pretraining. Cheap and simple; struggles on formatting-sensitive or domain-specific tasks compared to few-shot.
Example
'Classify this ticket as bug/feature/question.' — no examples given.
/ frequently asked
What is Zero-Shot Prompting?
Zero-shot relies purely on the model's pretraining. Cheap and simple; struggles on formatting-sensitive or domain-specific tasks compared to few-shot.
What is an example of Zero-Shot Prompting?
'Classify this ticket as bug/feature/question.' — no examples given.
Why does Zero-Shot Prompting matter for AI and automation?
Asking a model to do a task with no examples in the prompt. It connects to the workflows, prompts and tool stacks linked on this page, so you can move from definition to execution without leaving Onexial.
↳ connected nodes
Dictionary↳ linked
Few-Shot Prompting
Showing the model 2–5 examples of the task inside the prompt so it mirrors the pattern.
Dictionary↳ linked
Chain-of-Thought Prompting
Instructing a model to think step by step before answering.
Dictionary↳ linked
Prompt Chaining
Pipelining LLM calls where each step's output feeds the next.
Dictionary↳ linked
Chain of Thought
Prompting an LLM to reason step-by-step before answering, often improving accuracy on hard tasks.
Dictionary↳ linked
System Prompt
A high-priority instruction that sets the model's role, tone and constraints for the whole conversation.
Dictionary↳ linked
Temperature
The randomness knob on an LLM's output distribution.