Summarize provided material

Use this prompt when the answer must summarize only the material supplied by the user, without adding outside facts, inferred context, or unsupported claims.

  • Outcome
    Source-bound summary
    Returns a concise summary grounded only in the provided material.
  • Use case
    Files, notes, logs, reports, threads, or excerpts
    Use when the user supplies material and needs the main points, key details, and missing-evidence limits.
  • Output
    Structured summary with limits
    Separates summary, key points, quoted or referenced evidence when available, missing information, and confidence.

Scope and best-fit use

Use this prompt when the task is summarization and the answer must stay inside the supplied material.

  • Primary focus
    Summarize only provided material
    Use this prompt to summarize user-provided files, notes, logs, reports, screenshots, threads, or pasted excerpts.
  • Boundary
    Do not add outside facts
    The answer must not add external facts, assumptions, inferred context, or claims not supported by the provided material. Add the Use provided material only component when this evidence boundary must be reused in a larger workflow.
  • Use a different workflow when
    The task needs public research, classification, or rewriting
    Use Use web search when current facts matter when external sources are needed, Classify provided material when labels must be assigned, or a writing prompt when the goal is rewriting rather than summarizing.

Inputs required

Provide the material to summarize and the desired level of detail. If the material is missing or incomplete, the prompt should report what cannot be summarized.

  • Material to summarize: Files, notes, logs, reports, screenshots, threads, pasted excerpts, or other user-provided source material.
  • Summary goal: The desired summary type, such as executive summary, technical summary, issue summary, timeline summary, or key-points summary.
  • Constraints: Any length limit, audience, required sections, terminology constraints, or parts of the material that must be emphasized or excluded.

Copy-ready prompt

Copy the prompt and replace the MATERIALS block with the files, notes, logs, reports, threads, or excerpts to summarize. 

Summarize the provided material.

TASK:
Summarize only the material supplied in the MATERIALS block.

SOURCE BOUNDARY:
- Use only the provided material.
- Do not add outside facts, inferred context, assumptions, or background knowledge.
- Do not fill gaps.
- If a point is not supported by the provided material, mark it as NOT VERIFIED.
- If the material is missing or insufficient for the requested summary, state exactly what is missing.

SUMMARY CHECKS:
- Identify the main topic or purpose of the material.
- Extract the main points.
- Preserve important constraints, dates, numbers, names, entities, and dependencies when they appear in the material.
- Separate confirmed points from missing or unclear information.
- Keep the summary concise unless the user asks for a detailed version.

OUTPUT:
A) Summary
B) Key points
C) Important details
D) Missing or unclear information
E) Not verified from the provided material
F) Confidence

MATERIALS:
"""
Replace this block with the material to summarize.
"""

Use this as a runtime summarization prompt

Paste the material into the prompt at runtime. Keep stable files-only and no-fabrication rules in the instruction layer when this task repeats.

Next steps

Use these related resources when the task needs the policy or procedure behind files-only answering.