XML Prompting as Grammar-Constrained Interaction: Fixed-Point Semantics, Convergence Guarantees, and Human-AI Protocols

Abstract

Structured prompting with XML tags has emerged as an effective way to steer large language models (LLMs) toward parseable, schema-adherent outputs in real-world systems. We develop a logic-first treatment of XML prompting that unifies (i) grammar-constrained decoding, (ii) fixed-point semantics over lattices of hierarchical prompts, and (iii) convergent human-AI interaction loops. We formalize a complete lattice of XML trees under a refinement order and prove that monotone prompt-to-prompt operators admit least fixed points (Knaster-Tarski) that characterize steady-state protocols; under a task-aware contraction metric on trees, we further prove Banach-style convergence of iterative guidance. We instantiate these results with context-free grammars (CFGs) for XML schemas and show how constrained decoding guarantees well-formedness while preserving task performance. A set of multi-layer human-AI interaction recipes demonstrates practical deployment patterns, including multi-pass "plan $\to$ verify $\to$ revise" routines and agentic tool use. We provide mathematically complete proofs and tie our framework to recent advances in grammar-aligned decoding, chain-of-verification, and programmatic prompting.