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IntermediateSafety & Alignment
Grounding & Citation Prompting: Complete Guide for Prompt Engineers
Instruct models to only use provided context, cite sources, and acknowledge uncertainty to reduce hallucinations. Learn when to use it, see a real example, and understand the best practices.
When to Use This Technique
RAG applications, research tools, medical/legal content, or any use case where factual accuracy is critical.
Example Prompt
Answer ONLY using the provided documents. If the answer is not in the documents, say 'I don't have information about this in the provided context.' Cite the document section for each claim.
Pro Tips
- ✓Explicit grounding instructions dramatically reduce hallucination
- ✓Test with questions that require information NOT in context
- ✓Ask model to rate its own confidence
- ✓Combine with retrieval quality evaluation for best results
More Practice Prompts
Answer ONLY using the provided documents. If the answer is not in the documents, say 'I don't have information about this in the provided context.' Cite the document section for each claim.
FAQ
When should I use Grounding & Citation Prompting?
RAG applications, research tools, medical/legal content, or any use case where factual accuracy is critical.
What difficulty level is Grounding & Citation Prompting?
Grounding & Citation Prompting is considered Intermediate level in the Safety & Alignment category.
Quick Facts
DifficultyIntermediate
CategorySafety & Alignment