Do `Prompt files` actually work?

[alanwilter]

Relevant environment info

OS: macOS
Continue version: v0.9.211
IDE version:  VSCode  1.93.1
Model: GPT-4o

Description

If I try e.g. https://github.com/continuedev/prompt-file-examples/blob/main/unit-tests.prompt it actually crashes this feature and slash prompts don't work anymore. So I removed. I'm trying to do what's shown in the image, which works beautifully!

Therefore I created pytest.prompt with:

<system>
You are an expert programmer
</system>

{{{ input }}}

Write unit tests for the above selected code, following each of these instructions:
- Use pytest
- I have pytest already setup, so need to tell me how to install it
- Properly set up and tear down if needed
- Include important edge cases
- The tests should be complete and sophisticated
- Just give the code, no need to explain
- Don't explain how to set up pytest or how to use it
- Add typings according to python 3.9 convention, so no need to use `from typing import` etc.
- Add one line docstring explaining what the test does

and tried as seen in the second image.

But it does not work like in my first image.

Using GPT-4o, does do what was asked. What am I missing?

[RomneyDa]

@alanwilter using your prompt and function definition with gpt-4o it worked for me. Can you confirm that your pytest.prompt file was properly saved?

/.prompts/pytest.prompt

<system>
You are an expert programmer
</system>

{{{ input }}}

Write unit tests for the above selected code, following each of these instructions:
- Use pytest
- I have pytest already setup, so need to tell me how to install it
- Properly set up and tear down if needed
- Include important edge cases
- The tests should be complete and sophisticated
- Just give the code, no need to explain
- Don't explain how to set up pytest or how to use it
- Add typings according to python 3.9 convention, so no need to use `from typing import` etc.
- Add one line docstring explaining what the test does

def sort_array(xs: np.ndarray, n: int) -> np.ndarray:
    return xs[xs[:, n].argsort()]

• highlighted function definition, cmd + L to pull into chat
• type /pytest
• go

output (more or less matches your expected output):

continue v0.8.52

[alanwilter]

@RomneyDa Thanks for trying too. The thing is that release continue v0.8.52 works, but not pre-release v0.9.211. So, for me, it's clearly a bug.

[RomneyDa]

@alanwilter agree, switched to prerelease while keeping model prompt etc. the same and experienced same thing.

[callum-gander]

Same on my end, neither release or pre-release works with prompts. It won't add them as custom slash commands

[softwareliberationarmy]

Same behavior on Windows 11 with vs code, version 0.8.55.

• Connected to ollama, I attempted to "Build a custom prompt" from the chat.
• The system created a new .prompts folder in my workspace.
• Then I copied the code smells prompt into the file and renamed it 'code-smells.prompt'.
• Then restarted VS code and suddenly the Continue extension stopped working.
• Tried restarting and tweaking the config.json file several different ways, nothing fixed it.
• It didn't start working again until I deleted the .prompts folder altogether and restarted vs code again.

[abalesk]

Somehow, it didn't like --- lines in the prompts files; omitting them helped to return functionality (v0.8.55).

[ctwardy]

Lots appears to be changing in prompts recently, including moving slash commands to @ prompts and replacing {{{ moustache calls }}} with @ calls inside the prompt file.

@softwareliberationarmy wrote:

Then restarted VS code and suddenly the Continue extension stopped working.

Yes, I've been seeing a lot of that. It usually looks like this for me, and happens when loading Continue in a new VSCode window:

Continue just hangs. The error is the dreaded "Cannot read properties of undefined" which is unhelpful. So far I've found:

• @repo-map reliably causes this (or was it the EPERM error?). Don't invoke it from a prompt file until fixed.
• I had no issue with a single '---'. Possibly problems with multiple ones.
• These were also fine: @os, @README.me (and other filenames), @open (files opened in tabs), @diff.
• But do not test your prompts on your config project itself: prompts in the @diff break the fourth wall.
• Possibly embedded "```" and </system> in your @diff could also break things.
• (Probably other context providers besides @diff!)

I have decent @code-review and @merge-review that provide open-files, readme, and diff as context. I'm installing them only in the global .continue\prompts folder for simplicity. Once that's stable I might look at project-specific prompts.

[!NOTE] The global prompts dir is not monitored: changes require re-opening the VSCode window.

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