The ‘Prompt Library’ Anti‑Pattern: Why You Should Build Decision Trees Instead

Everyone loves the idea of a big “prompt library”, a long list of ready‑made phrases you can copy and paste into Copilot. It feels useful… until it isn’t. The truth? Prompt lists get old fast. Your work changes. Your documents change. Your goals change. And suddenly those pre‑written prompts don’t fit anymore. Even worse: people start copying prompts that were written for a completely different situation. That’s when Copilot gives weird or unhelpful answers, not because it’s wrong, but because the prompt didn’t match the task.