All terms
Patterns
Scratchpad
A working space in the prompt where a model writes intermediate notes before answering.
Definition
A scratchpad is an explicit working space within the prompt or generation where a model writes out intermediate calculations, notes, or reasoning before giving a final answer. It externalizes computation that would otherwise stay implicit, making multi-step reasoning more reliable. Chain-of-thought prompting encourages a visible scratchpad in the output, while some models perform similar work in an internal thinking area.