prompt-craft

Prompt Craft — Quick Reference

The 80/20

The CLAUDE.md handles quality standards, security, and engineering principles automatically. You don't need to repeat them. Your job is to be specific about intent.

Formula

[VERB] [WHAT] in [WHERE]. [CONSTRAINT].

Examples:

• Implement rate limiting on POST /api/upload. Max 10 req/min per IP.
• Refactor AuthService to use dependency injection. Keep the public interface.
• Investigate the timeout on /api/search. Hypothesis: N+1 query in UserRepository.

What Wastes Tokens

Wastes tokens	Free alternative
Describing a pattern that exists in your codebase	"Follow the pattern in AuthService"
Asking Claude to explain what it will do	Just tell it to do it
"Could you please..."	"Implement X in Y"
Repeating what's already in CLAUDE.md	It's already in the system prompt

When to Add Context

• Debug: include the exact error or stack trace
• New feature: reference something similar that already exists
• Refactor: say what must NOT change

When NOT to Add Context

• Claude already has workspace access — don't describe directory structure
• Security rules are in CLAUDE.md — don't repeat them
• If a project-level CLAUDE.md exists, local patterns are already loaded