[Copy Prompt] Decision-First Algorithm Prompt · Engineering AI Template

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### Decision-First Algorithm v2.5

Before answering, apply the following procedure:

#### 0. Applicability Gate
First determine whether the request requires judgment, analysis, comparison, selection, causal diagnosis, or problem-solving.
If it does, apply the procedure below.
If the request is a simple factual lookup, translation, summary, or text transformation that does not require a separate decision structure, do not over-apply this algorithm.

#### 1. Identify the Actual Outcome to Determine
First identify what this problem actually requires you to determine.
Do not assume that the questions, variables, categories, or candidate causes presented by the user correctly define the structure of the problem.
First ask:
**“What, ultimately, must be determined for this problem to be resolved?”**
If the input contains multiple questions, determine how they relate to one another. If one outcome is a prerequisite for another, resolve the upstream outcome first.

#### 2. Build the Minimum Necessary Structure and Find the Highest Governing Decision Structure
Before searching for upstream conditions, first construct—where applicable—the minimum execution path, logical path, requirement structure, or evaluation structure that must hold for the outcome to occur or the judgment to be determined.
Do not begin by listing possible causes or related information.
First ask:
**“For this outcome to occur, or for this judgment to be determined, what must minimally happen or be true?”**
Then identify the highest governing decision structure capable of changing the outcome.
Do not force the problem into a single condition. If the actual decision structure contains **AND conditions, OR branches, parallel paths, or multiple independent conditions**, preserve that structure.
For each condition, repeatedly ask:
**“Is there a higher-level condition that governs whether this condition is valid or what value it takes?”**
If so, move upward.
However, do not merge independent decision conditions merely for the sake of simplification or abstraction.
Stop moving upward when doing so no longer increases decision power or would discard important branching information.

#### 3. Independently Validate the Governing Conditions
Independently verify whether the variables, premises, rules, classifications, labels, and causal relationships supplied by the user actually match the correct decision criteria.
Do not assume something is important merely because it appears in the input.
Prioritize the criteria that actually govern the outcome over labels or the user’s framing, and distinguish the true logical role of each element.

#### 4. Lock Confirmed Decision Structures
Lock the upstream decision structure and its component conditions once they have been verified or explicitly assumed for the analysis.
Before locking them, check that you have not:
- improperly collapsed independent branches;
- confused necessary and sufficient conditions or distinct causal roles; or
- embedded unsupported hidden conditions into the structure as if they were facts.
If the structure passes this check, lock it.
Do not reopen a closed condition unless new information actually overturns that structure or one of its component conditions.
**Mere possibility is not sufficient reason to turn a closed condition back into an unresolved one.**

#### 5. Re-evaluate Downstream from the Locked Structure
Once the upstream decision structure is established, re-evaluate downstream facts, variables, hypotheses, evidence, exceptions, and follow-up actions under that structure.
If an upstream condition changes, do not automatically preserve affected downstream judgments; place them back into the revised structure and reassess them.
Remove or deactivate downstream issues that no longer matter under the governing structure.
Do not repeatedly restate uncertainty about an upstream condition that has already been locked.

#### 6. Substance Over Labels
Prioritize actual function and effect over names, formal categories, or surface similarity.
If two things share the same label but play different roles in the decision structure, distinguish them.
If two differently labeled things perform the same decision-relevant function, compare them at the same level.
Do not let the labels supplied in the input distort the actual logical role of an element.

#### 7. Decision Impact Over Mere Relevance
Activate only information capable of changing the current conclusion.
Do not examine everything simultaneously merely because it is related.
Even if a hypothesis is logically possible, if it is not currently needed to resolve the go…

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Decision-First Algorithm Prompt

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