ai-prompt

Prompt

Purpose

Prompt optimization and creation. Improves prompts, skill descriptions, and agent instructions using proven techniques: explicit over implicit, examples over rules, structured formatting, and positive framing. Can auto-enhance prompts for other skills or manually optimize user-provided text.

Trigger

• Command: /ai-prompt "<text>" (optimize text) or /ai-prompt --skill <name> (optimize a skill's description)
• Context: writing a new prompt, improving an existing skill's description, crafting agent instructions.

When to Use

• Writing or refining skill description fields (CSO optimization)
• Crafting system prompts for AI integrations
• Improving agent instruction clarity
• Before publishing any prompt-based artifact

Optimization Techniques

Apply these in order of impact:

1. Be Explicit Over Implicit

2. Show, Do Not Tell

Replace rules with examples. One concrete example is worth five abstract instructions.

Bad:  "Use descriptive names"
Good: "Name variables by what they represent:
       - `user_count` not `n`
       - `is_valid` not `flag`
       - `retry_delay_seconds` not `delay`"

3. Structure with XML Tags or Markdown

Use clear structural markers for different sections. Group related instructions. Use tables for multi-dimensional comparisons.

4. Explain WHY for Each Rule

Rules without rationale get ignored or misapplied. Every constraint should include its motivation.

Bad:  "Max 3 retries"
Good: "Max 3 retries (beyond 3, the underlying issue is systemic, not transient -- escalate instead of retrying)"

5. Positive Framing

State what TO do, not what NOT to do. The brain processes positive instructions faster.

Bad:  "Don't use generic error messages"
Good: "Include the specific operation, input value, and expected format in every error message"

6. CSO Optimization (for skill descriptions)

The description field is a search query match surface. Optimize for triggering conditions, not capability summaries.

Pattern: "Use when [specific situation + observable trigger]"

Bad:  "Database migration planning tool"
Good: "Use when planning database schema changes, assessing migration locking impact, or designing rollback procedures"

7. Cialdini Principles (for discipline-enforcing skills)

For skills that enforce process (guard, verify, commit):

• Authority: cite specific standards and their rationale
• Consistency: reference past decisions and established patterns
• Social proof: "teams that skip this step spend 3x longer debugging"

Procedure

Optimizing text

1. Analyze -- identify which techniques are missing from the input.
2. Apply -- rewrite applying all relevant techniques.
3. Compare -- present before/after with annotations explaining each change.
4. Validate -- check the optimized version is not longer than necessary (concise beats comprehensive).

Optimizing a skill description

1. Read skill -- load .claude/skills/ai-{name}/SKILL.md.
2. Extract current description -- from frontmatter.
3. CSO-optimize -- rewrite using triggering-condition pattern.
4. Present -- show before/after for approval.
5. Apply -- update the frontmatter if approved.

Quick Reference

/ai-prompt "check if the code follows our standards"   # optimize this text
/ai-prompt --skill guard                                 # optimize guard's description
/ai-prompt --skill commit                                # optimize commit's description

Common Mistakes

$ARGUMENTS