Effective Prompting with Harness AI
Harness AI generates various entities in the Harness Platform from natural language.
This guide shows you how to write effective prompts with examples of weak vs. strong phrasing.
Why Prompting Matters
Harness AI performs best when prompts are clear, detailed, and specific.
For DevOps use cases, the difference between “create a pipeline” and “create a CI→CD pipeline that builds a Docker image and deploys to Kubernetes” is the difference between vague production-ready pipelines.
Prompting Guidelines
- Be specific: Name repos, branches, connectors, services, perspectives and deployment strategies.
- Use action words: Start with Generate, Create, Define.
- Provide inputs: List parameters like
IMAGE_TAG,REPLICA_COUNT. - Focus: One resource per prompt is more reliable.
- Iterate: Begin broad, refine with more detail.
Pipeline Prompts
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Why It’s Better |
|---|---|---|
Create a pipeline for my app | Generate a Harness CI→CD pipeline that builds a Docker image and pushes to Dockerhub. Add a CD stage to deploy a Kubernetes service to namespace dev on cluster co[...] | More detailed, includes build, push, and deployment targets. |
Make a pipeline | Create a pipeline that runs unit tests for python, builds with Dockerfile, scans image with semgrep and deploys to staging using a Rolling strategy. Use GitHub connector rohan-git. | Specifies language, build, scan, deploy, strategy, and connector. |
Service Prompts
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Why It’s Better |
|---|---|---|
Make a Kubernetes service | Generate a Kubernetes service definition named portal using Helm with chart path /cd/chart/portal. Expose variables: IMAGE, TAG, REPLICA_COUNT. Include artifact references. | Names, chart path, exposed variables, artifact refs. |
Create a Lambda service | Create a serverless (AWS Lambda) service named router with runtime nodejs18.x, artifact from runtime input, and environment variables LOG_LEVEL, STAGE. | Adds runtime, artifact source, and environment variables. |
Environment Prompts
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Why It’s Better |
|---|---|---|
Create an environment | Generate an Environment named staging (type: PreProduction) | Defines name and environment type explicitly. |
Make prod environment | Create a Production environment named prod | Clear scope for production use. |
Secret Prompts
Important: Harness creates the secret object without values. You must add values manually in the UI. Secret values are never sent to AI.
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Why It’s Better |
|---|---|---|
Add a secret | Create a Secret Text named docker-hub-token. Store in default Secret Manager. | Includes type, name, and storage location. |
Connector Prompts
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Why It’s Better |
|---|---|---|
Make a Docker connector | Generate a Docker Registry connector named canary-docker pointing to harness/canary with credentials from secret refs usernameRef: canary and passwordRef: docker-hub-token. | Names, repo, and credential refs. |
Create a Vault connector | Create a HashiCorp Vault connector, called dev-vault and default the rest of the values. | Identifies type, name, and defaults. |
Template Prompts
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Why It’s Better |
|---|---|---|
Use a template | Create a Pipeline with the Deploy to K8s Stage Template. | Directly references a stage template by name. |
Add template | Create a Pipeline with the Golden K8s Pipeline Template. | Specifies which pipeline template to reuse. |
Application Cost Perspectives
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| “Make a perspective for apps.” | “Could you create a Cost Perspective rules based on Application costs for my payment and checkout apps?” | Groups spend by application, giving insights into cost per app. |
Environment Cost Perspectives
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| “I want to see dev, test, prod costs.” | “Could you create a Cost Perspective rules based on Environment costs (dev/staging/prod), tagging by env labels in AWS?” | Creates perspectives grouped by environment, helping you compare dev, staging, and production spend. |
Service or Component Cost Perspectives
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| “Show me service costs.” | “Could you create a Cost Perspective rules based on a service/component, such as API Gateway and Database, so I can track component-level spend?” | Breaks down costs by key services or components for more detailed visibility. |
Team or Department Cost Perspectives
| Weak Prompt | Strong Prompt | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| “Make a perspective for my teams.” | “Could you create a Cost Perspective rules based on Team/Department costs, mapping the team tag (payments, infra, analytics) to departments?” | Maps spend to teams/departments, enabling cost accountability and budget tracking. |
Best Practices for Cost Perspective Prompts
- Be clear about the grouping criteria: Specify whether you want the perspective by application, service, environment, or team.
- Use organizational terms: If you already tag resources (e.g.,
env=dev,team=payments), include these tags in your prompts. - Chain prompts: Start broad and refine. (e.g., “Create cost perspective by team” → “Add filters for production-only workloads”).
- Review and adjust: AI will create the baseline perspective, but you can refine rules to match internal tagging standards.
Additional Prompting Guidelines for Harness AI
Beyond the basics, here are more advanced prompting techniques to get consistent and high-quality results from Harness AI.
Other Prompting Guidelines
1. State the Resource Scope
Always specify whether the resource should be created at the Account, Org, or Project level. Also identify the resource name that you want to reference or use in your pipeline.
Example
Generate a pipeline at the Project scope that uses the staging environment and GitHub connector rohan-git.
For Cost, specify the actual resource scope.
Could you create a Cost Perspective rules based on Team/Department costs?
2. Include Runtime Inputs
Call out variables you want parameterized with <+input>.
Example
Create a Kubernetes service with IMAGE and TAG as runtime inputs, defaulting to `<+input>`.
3. Specify Deployment Strategies
Explicitly mention strategies such as Rolling, Blue/Green, or Canary.
Example
Create a production pipeline with a Canary deployment using 25%-75% rollout strategy.
4. Chain Stages Clearly
Describe the order of stages and include gating conditions.
Example
Generate a CI pipeline with build → test → deploy stages,
add a manual approval before deploy,
and notify Slack after success.
6. Add Verification or Notifications
Ask AI to extend pipelines with observability or collaboration integrations.
Example
Extend the staging deployment pipeline to run a health check verification step
and post results to Slack channel #deployments.
7. Use Iterative Prompting
Start with a basic resource and refine by adding details in follow-up prompts.
Example
First Prompt
Create a pipeline that builds and deploys to staging.
Follow up Prompt
Add a canary rollout strategy to the deployment stage.
Best Practice Checklist
- Mention target platform (Kubernetes, ECS, Lambda, VM, AWS, GCP)
- Include connector names and secret references
- Add environment and service details
- Specify deployment strategy (Rolling, Canary, Blue/Green) for DevOps use cases
- Use variables for flexibility (
IMAGE_TAG,SERVICE_NAME)