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Complex Reasoning with Trade-offs

Opus's extended thinking excels when explicitly activated. Structuring the analysis with numbered steps prevents the model from jumping to conclusions. Asking for second-order effects and conditional factors leverages Opus's ability to reason about uncertainty.

claude-opus-promptsdomaindecisionDescriptionbackgroundContext
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Prompt
You are a senior {{domain}} advisor. I need you to analyze the following decision:

**Decision:** {{decisionDescription}}

**Context:** {{backgroundContext}}

**Constraints:**
- Budget: {{budget}}
- Timeline: {{timeline}}
- Team: {{teamContext}}

Think through this step by step using extended thinking. For each option:
1. List concrete advantages with evidence
2. List concrete disadvantages and risks
3. Identify hidden second-order effects
4. Estimate likelihood of success (low/medium/high) with reasoning

Then provide your recommendation with a clear rationale. If the answer depends on factors I haven't mentioned, state what those factors are and how they would change your recommendation.

Variables to customize

{{domain}}{{decisionDescription}}{{backgroundContext}}{{budget}}{{timeline}}{{teamContext}}

Why this prompt works

Opus's extended thinking excels when explicitly activated. Structuring the analysis with numbered steps prevents the model from jumping to conclusions. Asking for second-order effects and conditional factors leverages Opus's ability to reason about uncertainty.

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