prompt-optimizerlisted

# Prompt Optimizer (State-of-the-Art Edition) ## CHANGELOG **v4.2 — Jun 2026.** Recalibration for Claude Opus 4.8 (released May 28 2026), plus a new RUN SETTINGS recommendation. No structural changes to the workflow; no architecture decision module changes; no lockstep coordination with prompt-architect required. - **Capability-activation note recalibrated for Opus 4.8 (Step 5).** The "4.7 calibration note" is now the "4.7–4.8 calibration note." 4.8's documented behavior changes — more reliable reasoning-effort calibration at each effort level, better tool triggering (fewer skipped tool calls the task required), improved honesty/anti-confabulation, more consistent instruction-following — narrow where three techniques earn their place, with one technique held deliberately steady: - *Reasoning activation* — split "more thinking" (now native via adaptive thinking + the effort dial) from "specific reasoning structure" (forced alternatives, self-critique, chain-of-verification — still the prompt's job). Generic "think step by step" earns its place even more rarely on 4.8. - *Anti-sycophancy* — held steady, NOT softened further. 4.8's honesty gains concern the model's claims about its own work, not its willingness to push back on the user's framing; on the reflexive-validation axis 4.8 did not improve. Value undiminished. - *Research activation* — narrowed: 4.8's better tool triggering means the scaffold earns its place only where phrasing is ambiguous enough that the mode