<answer> — when and how to use it in Claude prompts

Combined with , lets you parse the final response with a trivial regex.

When to use <answer>

• You want to programmatically extract the answer (regex on <answer>...</answer>).
• You're using chain-of-thought and need to hide or separately render the scratchpad.

When not to use it

• When the entire response is the answer — no need to wrap it.

Minimal example

<answer>42</answer>

Full example

<instructions>
Think inside <thinking> tags. Put the final classification (one of: bug, feature,
question, other) inside <answer> tags.
</instructions>

<ticket>{{ user_ticket }}</ticket>

Common mistakes

• Trying to put structured data inside <answer> while also asking for a different format outside it. Pick one location for the final output.