SDK Installation and Quickstart Prompt Template

Use this prompt when you need to produce a self-contained, copy-pasteable onboarding guide that takes a developer from an empty directory to a successful first API call. The ideal user is a DevRel engineer, SDK author, or technical writer who already possesses the canonical package name, the target language and its package manager, the required environment variables or config file structure, and a verified working code snippet for the most basic operation (e.g., initializing a client and fetching a resource). The prompt's job is to assemble these known-good artifacts into a structured, platform-idiomatic quickstart that minimizes time-to-first-success.

This prompt is not a substitute for a full API reference, an auto-generated method listing, or a conceptual overview of the service architecture. Do not use it when the SDK's public surface is still unstable and method signatures are changing daily, as the maintenance burden of keeping the quickstart in sync will outweigh its value. Avoid this prompt when the authentication flow requires an interactive browser-based OAuth grant that cannot be reduced to a static client ID and secret exchange; the resulting guide would mislead developers into thinking the setup is simpler than it actually is. Similarly, do not use it for SDKs that require complex local dependencies (e.g., specific operating system packages, hardware drivers, or non-standard runtimes) that cannot be expressed as a single package manager command.

Before invoking this prompt, gather the exact package installation command, the minimal environment setup steps, and a code snippet that you have personally compiled and executed against a live API endpoint. The prompt will structure these inputs, but it cannot invent a working authentication bootstrap or correct a broken code example. If you lack a verified first-call snippet, start by writing and testing one manually, then feed it into this prompt to generate the surrounding documentation. For high-risk or regulated APIs, ensure the generated quickstart includes a note about API key security and a link to the full authentication reference, and plan for a human review step before publication.

This prompt template instructs the model to produce a complete, platform-specific SDK installation and quickstart guide. It is designed to be wired into a documentation pipeline where the output must be copy-pasteable, free of hallucinated commands, and immediately usable by a developer. The template uses square-bracket placeholders that you must replace with your actual SDK details before sending the prompt to the model. The model is explicitly constrained to produce only the guide content with no extra commentary, preamble, or follow-up questions.

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You are a technical documentation generator for SDK installation and quickstart guides.

Generate a complete quickstart guide for the [SDK_NAME] SDK on the [PLATFORM] platform. The guide must be self-contained and ready for a developer to copy and paste.

Include the following sections in order:
1. Prerequisites: List required runtimes, package managers, and system dependencies with exact version constraints.
2. Installation: Provide the exact package manager command (e.g., npm, pip, maven, gem) to install the SDK. Include any required authentication or registry configuration.
3. Authentication Setup: Explain how to configure API keys, OAuth tokens, or environment variables. Provide the exact environment variable names and file paths.
4. Minimal First Call: Provide a complete, runnable code example that imports the SDK, configures authentication, makes one API call, and handles the response. Include basic error handling.
5. Next Steps: List 2-3 links or pointers to further documentation sections.

[CONSTRAINTS]
- Use only the package manager and language conventions appropriate for [PLATFORM].
- All commands and code must be copy-pasteable without modification.
- Do not include placeholder values like "your-api-key" in code blocks; use environment variable reads instead.
- If a dependency version is specified, it must be a real, released version as of [CURRENT_DATE].
- Do not include any introductory text, concluding text, or commentary outside the guide structure.
- Output the guide in Markdown format with appropriate code fences.

[INPUT]
SDK Name: [SDK_NAME]
Platform: [PLATFORM]
Package Name: [PACKAGE_NAME]
Package Registry: [REGISTRY_URL]
Auth Method: [AUTH_METHOD]
Auth Environment Variable: [AUTH_ENV_VAR]
Base Endpoint for First Call: [BASE_ENDPOINT]
Example Operation: [EXAMPLE_OPERATION]
Current Date: [CURRENT_DATE]

To adapt this template, replace every square-bracket placeholder with concrete values from your SDK's package manifest, auth configuration, and API specification. The [CURRENT_DATE] placeholder is critical for preventing the model from hallucinating future or deprecated package versions. For high-risk production documentation pipelines, pair this prompt with a validation step that checks the generated commands against your live package registry and runs the code example in a CI environment. If the guide will be published to a public-facing documentation site, route the output through human review before publication to catch any subtle inaccuracies in platform-specific conventions.

This prompt is designed to run inside a documentation generation pipeline, not as a one-off chat interaction. The typical harness calls the prompt once per target platform-language pair (e.g., Python-pip, Node-npm, Ruby-gem) and feeds the output into a static site generator or docs platform. Because the prompt produces copy-pasteable commands and a minimal first-call example, the harness must validate that those commands are syntactically correct and that any dependency versions referenced actually exist in the target package registry before the page is published.

Start by wrapping the prompt call in a function that accepts the required inputs: [SDK_NAME], [PACKAGE_MANAGER], [AUTH_METHOD], [API_BASE_URL], and [MINIMAL_USE_CASE]. After receiving the model response, run three validation passes. First, extract every code block and shell command, then execute a dry-run or --version check against the actual package manager in a sandboxed CI environment. Second, parse the authentication bootstrap steps and verify that the described credential format matches the actual auth contract (e.g., API key header name, OAuth grant type). Third, confirm that the minimal first-call example compiles or runs without error against a sandbox endpoint. If any validation fails, append the specific error message to a retry prompt that includes the original inputs plus the failure context, and re-run. Cap retries at three attempts before flagging for human review.

Log every prompt invocation with the input variables, model version, raw output, validation results, and retry count. For high-risk SDKs where incorrect installation instructions could cause security issues (e.g., suggesting --allow-root or insecure credential storage), add a mandatory human approval gate before the content reaches the docs site. Avoid wiring this prompt directly into a CD-triggered publish step without validation—stale version numbers, broken package manager commands, and hallucinated auth flags are the most common production failure modes.