Content sourced from official Anthropic documentation
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Start general, then get specific
Claude often performs better with high-level instructions than step-by-step prescriptive guidance. The model's creativity may exceed your ability to prescribe the optimal thinking process.
Math problem approach
Please think about this math problem thoroughly and in great detail.
Consider multiple approaches and show your complete reasoning.
Try different methods if your first approach doesn't work.
Start general, then read Claude's thinking output and iterate to provide more specific instructions only if needed.
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Technical considerations
Thinking tokens have a minimum budget of 1024 tokens. Start with the minimum and increase incrementally.
š”For workloads above 32K thinking tokens, use batch processing to avoid networking timeouts. Extended thinking performs best in English, though final outputs can be in any supported language.
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Multishot prompting with extended thinking
Few-shot examples work well with extended thinking. Include examples using <thinking> or <scratchpad> tags to show canonical reasoning patterns.
Teaching reasoning patterns
I'm going to show you how to solve a math problem, then I want you to solve a similar one.
Problem 1: What is 15% of 80?
<thinking>
To find 15% of 80:
1. Convert 15% to a decimal: 15% = 0.15
2. Multiply: 0.15 Ć 80 = 12
</thinking>
The answer is 12.
Now solve this one:
Problem 2: What is 35% of 240?
Claude generalizes the pattern to its formal extended thinking process. However, you may get better results by giving Claude free rein to think however it deems best.
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Where extended thinking excels
Tasks that naturally benefit from more thinking time ā the more constraints and complexity, the more thinking helps.
Simple vs. complex task
Plan a 7-day trip to Japan with the following constraints:
- Budget of $2,500
- Must include Tokyo and Kyoto
- Need to accommodate a vegetarian diet
- Preference for cultural experiences over shopping
- Must include one day of hiking
- No more than 2 hours of travel between locations per day
- Need free time each afternoon for calls back home
- Must avoid crowds where possible
Simple prompt: a few seconds of thinking. Constrained prompt: Claude naturally thinks longer to balance all requirements optimally. Also excels at STEM problems and strategic frameworks (Porter's Five Forces, Blue Ocean Strategy).
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Self-verification for consistency
Ask Claude to verify its work before declaring a task complete ā catches errors in reasoning and code.
Code with verification
Write a function to calculate the factorial of a number.
Before you finish, please verify your solution with test cases for:
- n=0
- n=1
- n=5
- n=10
And fix any issues you find.
Claude will run through the test cases in its extended thinking, catch edge cases, and self-correct before giving you the final answer.
