Prompt prefilling

One of my favorite parts about teaching is guiding the discussion by assigning readings, using them as a way to introduce a new concept or idea to students. I use LLMs to achieve something similar via a technique called prompt prefilling.

In most chat UIs, you can append a q parameter to the query string and prefill the text field with your desired prompt:

http://example.com?q=

This allows you to give people starter prompts to help guide their discussion. Instead of a blank text field, users arrive with a thoughtful question or creative query waiting for them. You might prefill a prompt asking them to analyze a piece of writing, explore a concept from multiple perspectives, or write something abstract like a poem. The hope is that you create branching pathways for people to steer conversations down, allowing space for their natural curiosity.