The Only Prompt Formula A Beginner Needs
Forget prompt libraries. Five lines, in this order, and you can write your own prompt for anything.
People decide to get good at AI, so they start collecting prompts. Fifty of them. A bookmarked mega-list. Then they use it exactly as before, because a recipe book you never cook from is a heavy shelf.
You don’t need a library. You need five lines, in this order.
The five lines
- Who it is and what this is for. “You’re helping me quote a job I’ve been putting off” beats “I’m going to paste something in”. It behaves differently when it knows the purpose.
- The job. One verb, one thing. Draft, compare, sort, rewrite, explain. “Help me with” is not a job.
- Numbered outputs, ending in what you’re left holding. Text to paste, a spreadsheet, a document, or one sentence. Never a hopeful ending.
- The rules. Length, tone, and the specific thing it must not do. Invent prices. Add facts you didn’t give it. Pretend to certainty.
- “Ask me up to three questions before you start.” The highest-value line in any prompt. It turns one guess into a short conversation.
The template
Nick this one:
You're helping me [the job, and why it matters to me].
The situation: [who I am, what's going on, including the awkward bit]
Here it is: [paste or attach whatever you're working from]
Give me:
1. [the first thing you want back]
2. [the second thing]
3. [what you're left holding: "final version only, ready to paste" / "then build it as a downloadable spreadsheet" / "then give me it as a document I can download" / "finish with the single sentence I'd tell a friend"]
Rules: British English, [how long], [what tone], and don't [the thing it must not do]. Ask me up to three questions before you start.Filled in, for real
Say you run a small café and takings are down since roadworks closed half the street.
The same five lines, filled in:
You're helping me write a post that gets my regulars back through the door.
The situation: I run a small café. Takings are down about 20% since roadworks closed our end of the street. People think we're shut. We're open, and there's parking round the back that nobody knows about.
Give me:
1. Three openers, none of which mention "cosy vibes".
2. The one that leads with the parking, since that's the actual problem.
3. Final version only, ready to paste, under 80 words.
Rules: British English, sounds like me not a marketing team, and don't invent an offer or a discount I haven't mentioned. Ask me up to three questions before you start.Nothing clever there. It’s just complete.
Weak against strong
Weak: “write a social media post for my café.” Strong: the one above. The weak version gets you a post about great coffee. The strong one gets a post that solves the roadworks.
Weak: “improve my invoice reminder.” Strong: “You’re rewriting a payment chase so it gets paid without me sounding cross. The situation: £240, five weeks late, a customer I want to keep. Give me: 1. The rewrite. 2. One line offering another way to pay. 3. Final version only, under 100 words. Rules: British English, firm and warm, and don’t apologise for asking. Ask me up to three questions before you start.”
The difference every time is the awkward detail. The bit you’re tempted to leave out because typing it feels embarrassing is the bit that changes the answer. Put the roadworks in.
The sixth line, when it applies
If a prompt needs something Claude could look up rather than something you type, give it both routes in one line:
“If you can see my calendar, read next week from it. If not, ask me what’s on.”
Same for your email or your files. One sentence, and the prompt works whether or not you’ve connected anything. Connecting Gmail, Calendar and Drive is free: Settings → Connectors, click the + in the header, sign in and approve.
Then haggle
The first answer is a first draft, not a verdict. Even a perfect brief gets you eighty per cent there, and the rest is three nudges:
- “Shorter.”
- “The middle bit’s good, lose the rest.”
- “You’ve made me sound like a solicitor. Again, plainer.”
Five seconds each. People who look brilliant at this are comfortable saying “not quite, again”.
Where it stops
The formula can’t invent facts you didn’t give it. It can’t pick your priorities: if warm and brief conflict, that’s still your call. And it doesn’t stop AI getting things confidently wrong, so anything that matters still gets your eyes on it.
Your next prompt
Add line five to it, even if you skip the other four. Watching it ask you three sharp questions teaches you more about briefing than this guide can.
Want the shape already filled in for a job you actually have? The 10 Prompts That Do Your Admin is ten of them, done.
That’s how to ask well. The Claude Kickstart is Claude set up around your actual trade, taught to sound like you, with five real jobs handed over. £47, one weekend.