Why should you care?

Legal and clinical teams review template text once; engineers only bind data at runtime.

See it live — copy this example

Paste into an ASP.NET Core 8+ / AgentNest project, then run with dotnet run (set your API keys in user-secrets).

// AgentNest.Agents/Templates/crm-account-summary.skprompt
You summarize CRM accounts for AgentNest reps.
Account: {{$accountName}}
Industry: {{$industry}}
Open deals: {{$openDeals}}
Use 3 bullets. No pricing guesses.

var fn = kernel.CreateFunctionFromPrompt(File.ReadAllText("Templates/crm-account-summary.skprompt"));
var result = await kernel.InvokeAsync(fn, new() { ["accountName"] = "Contoso" });

What happened?

• The .skprompt file holds reviewed instructions.
• CreateFunctionFromPrompt binds variables without embedding user HTML in code strings.

Practice next

1. Store templates under AgentNest.Agents/Templates/.
2. Load with CreateFunctionFromPrompt.
3. Version template files in git for compliance diff review.
4. Add {{$locale}} and branch bullet language in template.
5. Switch to Liquid syntax via PromptTemplateConfig.

Remember

Templates externalize prompt prose from C# logic. Bind variables at invoke time with KernelArguments. Track template changes for enterprise review.

Clinical summary approval

Compliance must approve hospital handoff wording quarterly.

Outcome: Git history on .skprompt files satisfies audit without redeploying code.