Error message

Shorten a product error while keeping its cause, consequence, and recovery.

Rewrite the supplied user-facing error as the shortest useful message. This is for a single failed operation, not a bug report or an incident update.

Start with what failed. State the known reason in terms the intended user can act on. Follow with one supplied recovery step, if there is one. Retain any consequence the user needs to know, such as whether changes were saved, a payment was made, or an operation can safely be retried.

Remove apologies, blame, internal narration, and repeated instructions. Keep exact limits, file formats, field names, and error codes when they help recovery or support. Do not expose extra implementation details. Do not replace a specific diagnosis with a generic failure.

Return only the message. Use one or two short sentences where possible. Preserve uncertainty, and never invent a cause, a retry guarantee, or an action the product does not support.

Example

CSV import validation

Before 57 words

Unfortunately, we were unable to complete the import of the records in the file you selected. The CSV file uses UTF-16 encoding, but this importer only accepts CSV files that use UTF-8 encoding. Please save the file again using UTF-8 encoding and then upload that file. No records from this file have been added to your account.

After 18 words

Import failed: this CSV uses UTF-16. Save it as UTF-8 and upload it again. No records were added.

Examples illustrate the method. They do not measure model output.

Files and sources

prompt.txt Complete prompt as plain text.
SKILL.md The same prompt with a skill header.
llms.txt (JSON) Prompt, metadata, example, and sources.
LICENSE MIT license text.

An original sho.rten.it skill. Source notes.