CRAFT Prompt Framework: Context, Role, Action, Format, Tone

Study guide

CRAFT Prompt Framework for Everyday Business Writing

CRAFT is a five slot prompt framework for business writing: Context, Role, Action, Format, Tone. It sits between prompts that are too thin and templates that are too long to finish. Context tells the AI where you work, who the output is for and what shapes the answer. Role tells it who is writing and with what experience. Action names the verb and the deliverable. Format sets structure, length and channel. Tone sets the feeling the reader should get. This course teaches each slot in order, shows what a finished prompt looks like, and explains when to swap Tone for Constraints in the CRAFT-C version.

The course is built for busy, non technical professionals who paste prompts into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and need a draft they can send without rewriting it. You will work through real job examples, including a reminder to field technicians, a customer reply about a delayed order and a welcome message for a new starter. You will also see the two failures that produce generic output: skipping Context so the AI guesses your situation, and writing a Role so vague it means nothing. By the end you will have three reusable templates for the tasks you repeat most often.

What is a prompt framework?

A prompt is the request you type into an AI tool such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. A prompt framework is a reusable structure for that request: a short checklist of the parts a good prompt contains, usually named with an acronym so it is easy to remember. Why it helps: the AI fills in whatever you leave out with generic guesses. A framework makes sure you include the parts that change the answer, such as who it is for, what you want to achieve and the format you need.

Frameworks make prompts repeatable: you fill the same parts each time, save the prompt as a template and share it with colleagues. They are not magic words: the value comes from the detail you put in each part. They help most when a request is complex or open to interpretation; a quick, simple question can stay short. There are well over sixty named frameworks, and most of them remix the same ingredients: role, task, context, audience, format, constraints and examples.

In this course you learn CRAFT, which is a fill-in-the-slots framework: an acronym where each letter stands for one part of your prompt. It is best for: general business writing and branded content where tone must be right.

Why five slots

CRAFT stands for Context, Role, Action, Format, Tone. It is RTF with two additions: context at the start and tone at the end. Those two additions are what stop the AI from guessing about your situation and your style. Fewer slots leave the model guessing, more slots turn the prompt into a form you never finish. Five is the middle ground that works for daily writing at work.

CRAFT overlaps with CO-STAR. Context, tone and format appear in both frameworks. The difference is that CO-STAR has a separate audience slot and CRAFT does not. Because there is no audience slot, you name the reader inside Context. A clause like this goes to my team of eight, most of whom are worried, does the same job and reads more naturally.

The first slot carries the most weight. Skipping context and jumping straight to the action produces a generic answer that fits no real team, no real reader and no real situation. Treat a CRAFT prompt as a brief, not a command. You give the AI the same clear information you would give a new colleague, and the quality of the draft follows from that.

Context and Role: the first two slots

Context first means the model reads the situation before it takes on a role, which grounds the role in your reality rather than in the average of everything the model has read. A useful Context covers three things: where you work and what your team does, who the output is for, and anything that shapes the answer such as a rule, a deadline or a recent change.

Always name the reader. Saying that the output goes to forty field technicians who read on their phones tells the AI the device, the setting and the attention level, which changes sentence length and structure. Role answers who writes this and with what experience. It is a viewpoint choice, not flattery. A field safety lead and a communications manager produce different reminders from the same facts.

The order of the slots carries meaning. Putting Context before Role stops the role from floating free of your reality, because the situation is already on the table when the role is chosen. Two common failures: skipping Context so the AI guesses your situation, and writing a role so vague that it means nothing, such as you are an expert, with no subject and no reader.

Action and Format: the deliverable and its shape

Action is the verb and the deliverable. It tells the AI what to do and what finished thing should come back, so the answer has a clear target instead of a vague topic. Format covers structure, length and channel. Structure is the shape of the answer, length is how much, and channel is where it will be read, such as email, chat or a slide.

Format is the slot most people skip, and the one that most often makes output usable. Naming it turns a wall of text into something you can send without rewriting. A useful Format line reads like a brief: a subject line plus three short paragraphs, or a WhatsApp length message. It is concrete and easy to check against the answer.

Action and Format work together. The verb sets the task, and the format sets the shape, so the AI produces the right thing in the right container on the first try. You can reuse the same Action and Format across many prompts. Keep a short list of your common formats, such as email brief, three bullets, or one page memo, and paste the right one in.

Tone: the feeling in the reply

Tone is the fourth CRAFT slot and it names the feeling the reader should get, such as calm and factual, upbeat, empathetic or firm. It is separate from format, which controls the shape of the reply. A tone word alone is weak because the AI has to guess why you want it. Pair the tone with a reason, for example firm, because this is the third reminder, so the AI knows how far to push.

When tone matters a lot, paste a sample of two or three sentences in the tone you want. The AI copies sentence length, politeness level and rhythm far better from an example than from a description. Firm without a reason often reads cold or aggressive. Empathetic without a reason often turns into a long apology. The because clause fixes both problems in four words.

Tone and format work together. A firm tone in a short email with three paragraphs reads as businesslike. The same firm tone in a long letter can read as a threat, so set both slots. Check the draft against your tone line before you send it. If the reply feels softer or harsher than the tone you asked for, add a sample and run it again.

CRAFT-C: constraints instead of tone

Constraints are rules you hand the AI before it writes, such as never promise a refund or quote the policy number. They limit what the reply may say, not how it sounds. Choose the version by risk. Tone suits marketing and internal comms, where the danger is sounding cold. Constraints suit regulated replies in insurance, healthcare, finance and legal work.

A good constraint is checkable. If you cannot point at a sentence and say yes or no, it is still a wish. Rewrite it until a colleague could audit the reply against it. Place constraints in the last slot. The AI reads them right before writing, so they sit closest to the moment the words are chosen.

Constraints do not replace tone. In mixed cases you can keep CRAFT-C and add one short tone line, so the reply stays warm while it stays inside the rules. An empty constraints slot is not neutral. The AI will fill the gap with a helpful, confident reply that may promise money, skip the policy number or stray into advice.

CRAFT in your job: three reusable templates

A template is a saved CRAFT prompt where Role, Format and Tone are already written, so each new task only needs a fresh Context and Action. This cuts prompt writing down to two lines. Choose your three templates by frequency, not by difficulty. The tasks you repeat most often give you the clearest sense of what good output looks like, so your fixed slots are easier to trust.

The fixed slots act as your house style. Keeping the same Role, Format and Tone across a task type means every output sounds like your team and needs less editing before it goes out. When the right tone is unclear, ask for two versions with different tones in one prompt. Comparing two finished drafts is faster than rewriting a single draft that missed the mark.

Templates are living documents. If you keep editing the Format or Tone of one template, that is a signal to update the template itself rather than fixing the output each time. The worked example shows the pattern in miniature: an HR coordinator keeps Role, Format and Tone fixed for welcome messages and swaps only the Context and Action for each new starter.

Frequently asked questions