{"id":"https://openalex.org/W4417287666","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.441","title":"What Prompts Don\u2019t Say: Understanding and Managing Underspecification in LLM Prompts","display_name":"What Prompts Don\u2019t Say: Understanding and Managing Underspecification in LLM Prompts","publication_year":2026,"publication_date":"2026-01-01","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W4417287666","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.441"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.441","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.441","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-acl.441.pdf","source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2026","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"conference-paper","indexed_in":["arxiv","crossref","datacite"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"gold","oa_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-acl.441.pdf","any_repository_has_fulltext":true},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5101966381","display_name":"Chenyang Yang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5016-7296"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I74973139","display_name":"Carnegie Mellon University","ror":"https://ror.org/05x2bcf33","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Chenyang Yang","raw_affiliation_strings":["Carnegie Mellon University"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Carnegie Mellon University","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5028181008","display_name":"Yuchen Shi","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1350-0843"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I74973139","display_name":"Carnegie Mellon University","ror":"https://ror.org/05x2bcf33","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yike Shi","raw_affiliation_strings":["Carnegie Mellon University"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Carnegie Mellon University","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5010979945","display_name":"Qin Ma","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8520-8190"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I74973139","display_name":"Carnegie Mellon University","ror":"https://ror.org/05x2bcf33","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Qianou Ma","raw_affiliation_strings":["Carnegie Mellon University"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Carnegie Mellon University","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Michael Xieyang Liu","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I74973139","display_name":"Carnegie Mellon University","ror":"https://ror.org/05x2bcf33","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Michael Xieyang Liu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Carnegie Mellon University"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Carnegie Mellon University","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5067467896","display_name":"Christian K\u00e4stner","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4450-4572"},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Christian Kaestner","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5004225142","display_name":"Tongshuang Wu","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1630-0588"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I74973139","display_name":"Carnegie Mellon University","ror":"https://ror.org/05x2bcf33","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Tongshuang Wu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Carnegie Mellon University"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Carnegie Mellon University","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I74973139"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":1,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":30.1914,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":1,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.97648502,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":true},"cited_by_percentile_year":{"min":94,"max":97},"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"9072","last_page":"9101"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12127","display_name":"Software System Performance and Reliability","score":0.5230000019073486,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1705","display_name":"Computer Networks and Communications"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12127","display_name":"Software System Performance and Reliability","score":0.5230000019073486,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1705","display_name":"Computer Networks and Communications"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10260","display_name":"Software Engineering Research","score":0.08429999649524689,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1710","display_name":"Information Systems"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10639","display_name":"Advanced Software Engineering Methodologies","score":0.06970000267028809,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/underspecification","display_name":"Underspecification","score":0.9902999997138977},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/process","display_name":"Process (computing)","score":0.5934000015258789},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/mistake","display_name":"Mistake","score":0.25369998812675476},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/work","display_name":"Work (physics)","score":0.25270000100135803}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2779631151","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7883767","display_name":"Underspecification","level":2,"score":0.9902999997138977},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.6261000037193298},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C98045186","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q205663","display_name":"Process (computing)","level":2,"score":0.5934000015258789},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C112930515","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4389547","display_name":"Risk analysis (engineering)","level":1,"score":0.39469999074935913},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C107457646","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q207434","display_name":"Human\u2013computer interaction","level":1,"score":0.302700012922287},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.29899999499320984},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C15744967","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9418","display_name":"Psychology","level":0,"score":0.26170000433921814},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C180747234","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23373","display_name":"Cognitive psychology","level":1,"score":0.25870001316070557},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2777179996","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q911222","display_name":"Mistake","level":2,"score":0.25369998812675476},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C18762648","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42213","display_name":"Work (physics)","level":2,"score":0.25270000100135803}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":3,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.441","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.441","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-acl.441.pdf","source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2026","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},{"id":"pmh:oai:arXiv.org:2505.13360","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13360","pdf_url":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.13360","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":"2331-8422","issn":["2331-8422"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"submittedVersion","is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"text"},{"id":"doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.13360","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2505.13360","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":"2331-8422","issn":["2331-8422"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":null,"is_accepted":false,"is_published":null,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"Preprint"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.441","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.441","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-acl.441.pdf","source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2026","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[],"funders":[],"has_content":{"pdf":true,"grobid_xml":true},"content_urls":{"pdf":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4417287666.pdf","grobid_xml":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4417287666.grobid-xml"},"referenced_works_count":0,"referenced_works":[],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Prompt":[0],"underspecification":[1,125],"is":[2,34],"a":[3,111],"common":[4],"challenge":[5],"when":[6],"interacting":[7],"with":[8,50],"LLMs.In":[9],"this":[10,18],"paper,":[11],"we":[12,93],"present":[13],"an":[14],"in-depth":[15],"analysis":[16],"of":[17,114],"problem,":[19],"showing":[20],"that":[21,99],"while":[22],"LLMs":[23],"can":[24,82],"often":[25],"infer":[26],"unspecified":[27],"requirements":[28,69,81,116],"by":[29,102],"default":[30],"(41.1%),":[31],"such":[32],"behavior":[33],"fragile:":[35],"Underspecified":[36],"prompts":[37],"are":[38],"2x":[39],"as":[40,74],"likely":[41],"to":[42,61,121],"regress":[43],"across":[44],"model":[45],"or":[46],"prompt":[47,84,96,124],"changes,":[48],"sometimes":[49],"accuracy":[51],"drops":[52],"exceeding":[53],"20%.":[54],"1":[55],"This":[56],"instability":[57],"makes":[58],"it":[59],"difficult":[60],"reliably":[62],"build":[63],"LLM":[64],"applications.Moreover,":[65],"simply":[66],"specifying":[67],"all":[68],"does":[70],"not":[71],"consistently":[72],"help,":[73],"models":[75],"have":[76],"limited":[77],"instruction-following":[78],"ability":[79],"and":[80,119],"conflict.Standard":[83],"optimizers":[85],"likewise":[86],"provide":[87],"little":[88],"benefit.To":[89],"address":[90],"these":[91],"issues,":[92],"propose":[94],"requirements-aware":[95],"optimization":[97],"mechanisms":[98],"improve":[100],"performance":[101],"4.8%":[103],"on":[104],"average":[105],"over":[106],"baselines.We":[107],"further":[108],"advocate":[109],"for":[110],"systematic":[112],"process":[113],"proactive":[115],"discovery,":[117],"evaluation,":[118],"monitoring":[120],"better":[122],"manage":[123],"in":[126],"practice.":[127]},"counts_by_year":[{"year":2026,"cited_by_count":1}],"updated_date":"2026-08-05T07:39:15.569665","created_date":"2025-10-10T00:00:00"}