RS Glossary
Model Steering
Model steering is the use of prompts, constraints, examples, controls, or feedback to guide a model toward desired behavior.
- Review state
- Reviewed in POC
- Freshness
- Current
- Version
- 3
- Model Steering
- Steering
Remember it this waySteering shapes behavior; it does not create judgment.
In plain language
Model steering guides model behavior toward a desired task, style, policy, or constraint. Steering can come from prompts, examples, system instructions, decoding controls, fine-tuning, or feedback.
Why it matters
The steering method affects how durable and reliable the behavior is. A prompt-level preference is different from a trained behavior, and neither guarantees compliance in every context.
Example
A system prompt directs a model to answer as a concise safety reviewer, while examples demonstrate the required format and escalation threshold.
Common misconception
Steering does not prove that a model understands or agrees with the direction. It changes the conditions shaping its output and may fail under conflicting inputs.
Related terms
Sources
- Long Ouyang and colleagues, “Training Language Models to Follow Instructions with Human Feedback”shows post-training methods used to steer language-model behavior toward demonstrated and preferred responses.
- OpenAI, “Model Spec”documents instruction hierarchy and behavioral guidance as system-level steering mechanisms.
Learn more
- Compare [[system-prompt|System Prompt]], [[alignment|Alignment]], [[guardrails|Guardrails]], and [[fine-tuning|Fine-Tuning]] to place Model Steering in the surrounding system.
- Follow the cited source material above for the method, standard, or research context behind this draft.
Public history
24 recorded events · 24 public summaries
A potential shared concept was discussed and selected for initial glossary drafting.
The captured candidate received a complete initial draft and entered section-level human review.
Radar reviewed the initial definition draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial plain-language-explanation draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial why-it-matters draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial example draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial common-misconception draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial remember-it-this-way draft for human consideration.
Radar reviewed the initial related-terms draft for human consideration.
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Radar reviewed the initial learn-more draft for human consideration.
Definition review recorded as replace.
Radar reviewed Mike's accepted definition replacement for this exact wording version.
Plain-Language Explanation review recorded as approve.
Why It Matters review recorded as approve.
Example review recorded as approve.
Common Misconception review recorded as approve.
Remember It This Way review recorded as approve.
Related Terms review recorded as approve.
Sources review recorded as approve.
Learn More review recorded as approve.
Sources review recorded as replace.
Radar verified the learner-facing sources after personal origin provenance was removed.
All nine current wording approvals were reconciled to Approved term status.
Source: vault/Glossary/terms/model-steering/term.md · sha256:90d60bd72d5117dbf409e51f3cc59fc94a0dfe26e9135396677062a5312bb6d8 · Release: rs-glossary-glossary-team-poc-0.5.5-2026-09-02