Every answer ChatGPT gives you rests on things you never said. Your budget, your timeline, your team size, your industry. It fills the gaps silently and the answer reads as confidently as if you had specified all of it.
This prompt separates the answer from the guesses underneath it.
The prompt
Answer the question, then under a separate heading called Assumptions, list every fact you assumed to be true that I did not state.
Question: [paste your question]How to use it
Read the Assumptions section first. One wrong line there invalidates everything above it.
Best on anything with numbers, deadlines, or constraints you didn't spell out.
When an assumption is wrong, correct just that one and ask again. Don't restart.
What it doesn't do
It lists assumptions the model can see itself making. It won't surface the ones baked into how it was trained, which are the ones you'd most want to know about.