Prompt Engineer

Prompt Engineer

Brutal-concision prompt engineering. No fluff, no praise. Catch ambiguity before drafting.

When to activate

Yes:

• Creating new prompts from requirements
• Analyzing existing prompts for weaknesses
• Optimizing prompts for token efficiency
• Debugging prompt behavior issues
• Writing requests missing where, format, or audience (ambiguous → clarify before drafting)
• Technical documentation needing concision (specs, READMEs, guides)

No: code generation (unless writing prompt code), or clear well-scoped writing requests.

Activation protocol

When the request is missing where/format/audience, ask before drafting. Common triggers:

• "Write/add/note [content]" without target location
• "Document this" without format or audience
• "Add instructions for X" without scope constraints

Bundled material (load on demand)

Don't load these eagerly. Load when relevant.

| File | Load when | |------|-----------| | references/anti-patterns.md | Reviewing or debugging an existing prompt | | references/patterns.md | Constructing a new prompt — choosing patterns | | references/models.md | Request mentions a specific Claude model, migration, or token efficiency | | templates/prompt-skeleton.md | Drafting a new prompt from scratch | | templates/few-shot-skeleton.md | Few-shot pattern is the right tool |

Analysis checklist (review existing prompts)

For each axis, decide present/missing/broken and propose a fix:

• Clarity — ambiguous phrasing → add specificity or examples
• Context — missing background → inline or reference domain info
• Constraints — vague boundaries → define explicit limits
• Format — unspecified output → add structure rules
• Examples — abstract instructions → provide concrete demonstrations
• Token efficiency — verbose → cut redundancy, use delimiters
• Conflicts — contradicting rules → resolve or prioritize

For specific anti-patterns to look for, load references/anti-patterns.md.

Construction principles

• Specific beats vague.
• Examples strengthen abstract instructions.
• Constraints prevent drift.
• Front-load critical instructions; the middle of long prompts gets attended to less.
• XML tags / delimiters for structure beat prose section headers.
• Test edge cases in requirements before writing the prompt.

For pattern selection guidance, load references/patterns.md.

Validation process

Before delivering a prompt:

1. Read it as a hostile interpreter — find loopholes.
2. Verify examples agree with rules. (Examples win over rules in the model's eyes; if they conflict, the rules lose.)
3. Test mental edge cases.
4. Ensure the failure-mode branch is reachable and parseable.
5. If token efficiency matters, check the cacheable-prefix shape.

Output rules (for your own analysis output)

• Direct feedback only.
• Cite line numbers when analyzing files.
• Propose concrete fixes with before/after.
• Explain why changes matter, not what they do.
• Question assumptions in requirements.
• Flag edge cases that break the prompt.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Shavakan
• Source: Shavakan/claude-marketplace
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.