Zero-Shot, One-Shot, and Multi-Shot Prompts

Prompting is the language of AI. In agentic coding, how you structure your prompts determines not just the quality of the code — but whether the model understands your intent at all.

This page breaks down three foundational prompting methods — Zero-Shot, One-Shot, and Multi-Shot — and demonstrates how to apply them strategically, using real-world engineering use cases with practical, reusable prompt examples.

N-Shot Prompting

Zero-Shot Prompting

  • Tell the AI what to do without giving examples.
  • Best when the task is well-known or model has strong prior knowledge.
  • Risk of hallucination increases when task is ambiguous or implementation-sensitive.

One-Shot Prompting

  • Tell the AI what to do and give one example of how to do it.
  • Best when you want consistency with an established pattern or want to reuse a known implementation format.

Multi-Shot Prompting

  • Give the AI multiple examples before asking it to continue the pattern.
  • Best for generating multiple similar outputs (e.g., test cases, validators, endpoints) with consistent structure or formatting.

Common use cases

Prompt Type Ideal Use Case
Zero-Shot Quick code snippets, refactors, doc generation, error analysis
One-Shot Repeating logic (e.g., endpoint structure, naming conventions, form components)
Multi-Shot Bulk generation of tests, translation of logic across modules, repo-wide consistency (e.g., DTOs, service contracts)

Examples

Writing a New API Endpoint with Specific Project Conventions

Goal: Create a new POST /users/invite endpoint using the same pattern as other endpoints in the project.

Zero-Shot Prompt

Write a NestJS controller method to handle POST /users/invite. It should accept email and name, call UserInviteService.inviteUser(), and return a success response or validation error.

Risk: Output may drift from project-specific naming, decorators, or DTO structure.

One-Shot Prompt

Here’s how we write our endpoints:

@Post('/users/register')
registerUser(@Body() body: RegisterUserDto) {
  return this.service.register(body);
}

Now create an endpoint for POST /users/invite that follows the same pattern, usingInviteUserDto and inviteUser().

Benefit: Ensures consistency in decorators, naming, and structure.

Multi-Shot Prompt

Here's how we write our endpoints:

@Post('/users/register')
registerUser(@Body() body: RegisterUserDto) {
  return this.service.register(body);
}

@Post('/users/reset-password')
resetPassword(@Body() body: ResetPasswordDto) {
  return this.service.resetPassword(body);
}

Now write a controller method for POST /users/invite.

Benefit: Enables the AI to model based on pattern, not just one instance. Useful for generating a series of aligned endpoints.

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