Glossary · Prompting & context
Instruction Following
A model capability to map natural-language directions and supplied context to behavior that satisfies the stated task and constraints.
Why it matters
Language generation can be fluent without obeying the user's requested operation, format, boundaries, or priorities.
In practice
Evaluate instruction adherence separately from answer quality using conflicting constraints, format requirements, irrelevant context, and refusal cases.
Common confusion
Instruction following is not factual correctness, alignment, or obedience to every string that looks like an instruction.
Related terms
Sources
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