Deprecation Discipline

Prompts die. They become obsolete because the task they perform is now handled by a better prompt, because the underlying model changed in ways that make the prompt's assumptions invalid, because the business requirement the prompt served no longer exists. The question is not whether prompts will be retired — they will. The question is whether they are retired with discipline or whether they simply stop being used while remaining in the library, polluting search results and confusing future users.

Deprecation discipline means retiring prompts through a defined process rather than abandonment. A deprecated prompt is not deleted — it is marked with a status change, a sunset date, a migration path, and a reason. Users searching the library will see the deprecated prompt, but they will also see the reason it was deprecated, the prompt that replaces it, and the date after which it will be archived. This transparency protects the teams who built integrations on top of the deprecated prompt: they have warning, they have a migration target, and they have a deadline.

id: sales-email-003
name: "Cold Outreach — Short Form (Legacy)"
version: "1.4.2"
status: deprecated

deprecation:
  deprecated_date: "2026-02-01"
  deprecated_by: "rev-ops-team"
  reason: >
    Superseded by sales-email-007 (Cold Outreach — Adaptive).
    sales-email-003 uses a fixed three-paragraph structure that underperforms
    on LinkedIn-sourced leads. sales-email-007 adapts structure based on
    lead source context variable.
  replaced_by: "sales-email-007"
  sunset_date: "2026-04-01"
  migration_notes: >
    Difference: sales-email-007 requires a 'lead_source' input variable
    ('linkedin' | 'cold-list' | 'referral'). Add this variable to all
    integrations before the sunset date. No other changes to input schema.
  affected_integrations:
    - "outreach-sequence-builder"
    - "hubspot-email-automation"

changelog:
  - version: "1.4.2"
    date: "2026-02-01"
    author: "rev-ops-team"
    change: "Marked deprecated. See deprecation record above."