Prompts and Conversations - Claude Cheat Sheet

The four parts of a brief - job, context, format, limits - plus the role, reason and example when they help. Then treating the first answer as a draft: six steering moves, when to edit versus reply, and when to start fresh.

On the sheet:

- Anatomy of a brief: one prompt, four parts: job, context, format, limits

- The job: start with a sharp verb

- Context: supply it, do not describe it

- Format: name the shape you want back

- Limits: the four boundaries: length, tone, survive, unsure

- Role, reason, one example: the three things to add when they help

- The rewrite drill: four questions that sharpen any prompt

- Six steering moves: fixing the first answer in the next turn

- Edit, or reply?: steer a wrong answer, edit a wrong question

- When to start fresh: the signs a thread is stuck, and how to carry it over

- Get more from a thread: reverse, options, argue back, mix the best

Two A4 pages, printed front and back, sized to print once and keep beside you while you work. Written in short sentences and plain English, for readers whose first language is not English and clearer for everyone else because of it.

It pairs with the Your First Real Prompts and Having a Conversation books, so you can learn each idea in full and then revise it here in two pages.

Every product fact on this sheet - every plan, price, limit, setting and menu - was checked against Anthropic's own published documentation before the file was made. This is an independent study guide, not affiliated with, authorised by, or endorsed by Anthropic. Instant PDF download. By M.R. Sterling.