Chain of Thought

When to use

Essential for educational tools, problem-solving applications, and domains where showing step-by-step reasoning builds trust and enables learning.

When not to use

• Casual Q&A where showing reasoning adds noise and latency for no decision value.
• Regulated domains where incorrect step narratives create liability even when the final answer is fine.
• Cases where the model’s “thoughts” are unreliable after-the-fact stories rather than true traces.

Anti-patterns

• Dumping wall-of-text “thinking” with no collapse or summary.
• Presenting fabricated step-by-step justifications as factual audit trails.
• Hiding tool calls users need while showing only decorative CoT prose.
• Forcing CoT open by default on every message in a dense chat.

How products use it

Use this pattern in your project

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Generate a production-ready implementation of the "Chain of Thought" AI interface design pattern.

Pattern Definition: