Beyond Prompt Content: Enhancing LLM Performance via Content-Format Integrated Prompt Optimization

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Liu, Yuanye, Xu, Jiahang, Zhang, Li Lyna, Chen, Qi, Feng, Xuan, Chen, Yang, Guo, Zhongxin, Yang, Yuqing, Cheng, Peng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866918027534008320
author Liu, Yuanye
Xu, Jiahang
Zhang, Li Lyna
Chen, Qi
Feng, Xuan
Chen, Yang
Guo, Zhongxin
Yang, Yuqing
Cheng, Peng
author_facet Liu, Yuanye
Xu, Jiahang
Zhang, Li Lyna
Chen, Qi
Feng, Xuan
Chen, Yang
Guo, Zhongxin
Yang, Yuqing
Cheng, Peng
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown significant capability across various tasks, with their real-world effectiveness often driven by prompt design. While recent research has focused on optimizing prompt content, the role of prompt formatting, a critical but often overlooked dimension, has received limited systematic investigation. In this paper, we introduce Content-Format Integrated Prompt Optimization (CFPO), an innovative methodology that jointly optimizes both prompt content and formatting through an iterative refinement process. CFPO leverages natural language mutations to explore content variations and employs a dynamic format exploration strategy that systematically evaluates diverse format options. Our extensive evaluations across multiple tasks and open-source LLMs demonstrate that CFPO demonstrates measurable performance improvements compared to content-only optimization methods. This highlights the importance of integrated content-format optimization and offers a practical, model-agnostic approach to enhancing LLM performance. Code is available at https://github.com/HenryLau7/CFPO.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_04295
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Beyond Prompt Content: Enhancing LLM Performance via Content-Format Integrated Prompt Optimization
Liu, Yuanye
Xu, Jiahang
Zhang, Li Lyna
Chen, Qi
Feng, Xuan
Chen, Yang
Guo, Zhongxin
Yang, Yuqing
Cheng, Peng
Computation and Language
Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown significant capability across various tasks, with their real-world effectiveness often driven by prompt design. While recent research has focused on optimizing prompt content, the role of prompt formatting, a critical but often overlooked dimension, has received limited systematic investigation. In this paper, we introduce Content-Format Integrated Prompt Optimization (CFPO), an innovative methodology that jointly optimizes both prompt content and formatting through an iterative refinement process. CFPO leverages natural language mutations to explore content variations and employs a dynamic format exploration strategy that systematically evaluates diverse format options. Our extensive evaluations across multiple tasks and open-source LLMs demonstrate that CFPO demonstrates measurable performance improvements compared to content-only optimization methods. This highlights the importance of integrated content-format optimization and offers a practical, model-agnostic approach to enhancing LLM performance. Code is available at https://github.com/HenryLau7/CFPO.
title Beyond Prompt Content: Enhancing LLM Performance via Content-Format Integrated Prompt Optimization
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.04295