Reference · How-to · ~8 min

How to reduce hallucinations in answers

You can't eliminate hallucinations — but you can **ground, constrain, and verify**.

You can't eliminate hallucinations — but you can **ground, constrain, and verify**.

Steps

1. **Ground with sources** — RAG, attachments, or pasted quotes

2. **Constrain the prompt** — "Use only the text below; say I don't know if missing"

3. **Lower temperature** for factual tasks

4. **Ask for citations** — then open each citation yourself

5. **Use structured output** when extracting fields — easier to validate

Copy-paste prompt

Answer using ONLY the provided context.
If the answer is not supported, reply: "Not in the notes."
Context:
[paste]
Question:
[your question]
Cite the sentence you used.

When hallucinations persist

  • Retrieval is wrong → fix chunking / vector DB first
  • Question needs live data → add a tool, not more prompting
  • **Try the lessons:** `spot-wrong-answers` · `what-is-rag`