Garnishing

Etymology

From Old Fr. garnir (to furnish, to warn) + culinary-computational metaphor introduced in the Anthropic Style Guide Addendum (2024), section 4.2: 'Decorative Output Behaviors'

Definition

The process by which Claude adds finishing touches to an otherwise complete response, including but not limited to: a closing pleasantry, an unsolicited caveat, a brief disclaimer about AI limitations, and occasionally a small sprig of metaphorical parsley. The garnish does not alter the nutritional content of the response.

Diagram

Usage

"The model spent 6.1 seconds generating the core answer and a further 9.8 seconds garnishing it with what the postmortem describes as 'an unnecessary but structurally sound hedge about the nature of certainty itself.'" - Engineering Postmortem EPM-2024-0091

See Also