Prompt Chain Builder

---
name: prompt-chain-builder
description: "Build multi-step prompt chains with task decomposition, input/output contracts, variable passing, validation gates, branching logic, error handling, and cost tracking. Design chains for research-to-summary-to-write workflows."
category: ai-automation
difficulty: intermediate
model_boost: "Fixes single-prompt approaches that fail on complex tasks; enables step-wise decomposition with validation and cost control"
---

# Prompt Chain Builder

## Purpose
This skill teaches you to design multi-step AI workflows that break complex tasks into atomic steps, pass outputs between steps, validate intermediate results, branch on conditions, and track costs. You'll learn to construct chains for tasks like research→summarize→write, extract→validate→transform, and escalate→analyze→report. The output is a production-ready chain system with error handling, monitoring, and cost optimization.

## When to Use
- Tasks requiring 3+ sequential AI steps
- Complex reasoning tasks decomposed into substeps
- Workflows needing validation/approval gates between steps
- Multi-stage transformation pipelines (extract → normalize → validate)
- Cost-sensitive workflows requiring per-step optimization
- **Do NOT use when**: Single-step tasks, real-time streaming, or simple prompt completions

## Instructions

### Step 1: Task Decomposition and Step Definition
Break complex tasks into atomic, reusable steps.

**Decomposition Patterns**:

**Pattern 1: Sequential Linear Chain**