diff --git a/solutions/agents/variables.tf b/solutions/agents/variables.tf
index dd6db963..37c2f2c0 100644
--- a/solutions/agents/variables.tf
+++ b/solutions/agents/variables.tf
@@ -8,6 +8,16 @@ variable "prefix" {
   type        = string
   description = "The prefix for resources created by this solution."
   default     = null
+  validation {
+    condition = anytrue([
+      var.prefix == null,
+      alltrue([
+        can(regex("^([a-z]|[a-z][-a-z0-9]{0,14}[a-z0-9])$", var.prefix)),
+        length(regexall("^.*--.*", var.prefix)) == 0
+      ])
+    ])
+    error_message = "Prefix must begin with a lowercase letter, contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and - characters. Prefixes must end with a lowercase letter or number and be 16 or fewer characters."
+  }
 }
 variable "provider_visibility" {
   description = "Set the visibility value for the IBM terraform provider. Supported values are `public`, `private`, `public-and-private`. [Learn more](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/IBM-Cloud/ibm/latest/docs/guides/custom-service-endpoints)."
diff --git a/solutions/instances/variables.tf b/solutions/instances/variables.tf
index 99ac98c6..05acbb87 100644
--- a/solutions/instances/variables.tf
+++ b/solutions/instances/variables.tf
@@ -49,6 +49,16 @@ variable "prefix" {
   type        = string
   description = "The prefix to add to all resources that this solution creates."
   default     = null
+  validation {
+    condition = anytrue([
+      var.prefix == null,
+      alltrue([
+        can(regex("^([a-z]|[a-z][-a-z0-9]{0,14}[a-z0-9])$", var.prefix)),
+        length(regexall("^.*--.*", var.prefix)) == 0
+      ])
+    ])
+    error_message = "Prefix must begin with a lowercase letter, contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and - characters. Prefixes must end with a lowercase letter or number and be 16 or fewer characters."
+  }
 }
 variable "provider_visibility" {
   description = "Set the visibility value for the IBM terraform provider. Supported values are `public`, `private`, `public-and-private`. [Learn more](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/IBM-Cloud/ibm/latest/docs/guides/custom-service-endpoints)."
diff --git a/tests/pr_test.go b/tests/pr_test.go
index 022415f3..47ebdea8 100644
--- a/tests/pr_test.go
+++ b/tests/pr_test.go
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ func TestInstancesInSchematics(t *testing.T) {
 
 	options := testschematic.TestSchematicOptionsDefault(&testschematic.TestSchematicOptions{
 		Testing: t,
-		Prefix:  "instance-da",
+		Prefix:  "inst-da",
 		TarIncludePatterns: []string{
 			"*.tf",
 			solutionInstanceDADir + "/*.tf",