Five short phrases. Type one before your question and the answer changes completely. No long prompts, no prompt-engineering degree. Here is each one written out so you can copy, paste, and go.
The 5 codes (copy, paste, go)
01 brutal mode
Stops the flattery and tells you what is actually broken
Be brutally honest with me on this. No compliments, no softening, no "this is great, but." Tell me the real problems and what you would fix first.
02 Eli5
Turns a messy, jargon-heavy answer into something instantly clear.
Explain this like I'm 5. Plain words, one simple example, no jargon. If you have to use a technical term, define it in the same sentence.
03 steelman it
Makes Claude argue the other side harder than you can. Great for gut-checking a decision.
Steelman the opposite of what I just said. Give me the strongest, smartest case against my position, as if the sharpest person in the room disagreed with me.
04 pre-mortem
Assumes your plan already failed, then tells you exactly why. Surfaces the risks you were avoiding.
Do a pre-mortem on this plan. Assume it's six months later and it failed badly. Walk backward and list the most likely reasons, ranked, and the one I'm probably ignoring.
05 receipts
Forces every claim to come with a real, checkable source. Kills confident-sounding nonsense.
From now on, back every factual claim with a real source I can check. If you can't source it, say "no source" instead of guessing.
5 bonus codes nobody's posting
Same idea, more range. Type the phrase, or paste the line.
+ compress it
Cut this to the 3 sentences that actually matter. Delete everything I don't need to make the decision.
+ what am I missing
What's the blind spot I'm not seeing here? Name the thing I'd be embarrassed to have missed.
+ grade it
Score this out of 10 and tell me exactly what a 10 would look like, then give me the two changes that move it up the most.
+ no hedging
Skip the caveats. Give me your single best recommendation and commit to it, then note the one risk worth watching.
+ teach it back
Explain this back to me in your own words, then quiz me on the one part I'm most likely to get wrong.
Make them always-on (so they never turn off)
The codes work in any single chat. To make Claude remember them everywhere, do this once:
- Open a new Claude Project (or Settings, then your personal preferences / custom instructions).
- Paste the setup block below into the instructions.
- From then on, in any chat in that Project, you just type the code word and Claude applies it.
Free, for your email
Get the full setup steps + the copy-paste setup prompt
The rest of this guide (1 more section) opens right here. The setup prompt, one paste into Claude that sets it all up, comes by email only. Use your real address.
Unlocks: Setup block:
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