What is Claude, and where should you start?

Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant. A prompt is the instruction you give it; prompt engineering means shaping that instruction, its context and its requirements to guide the answer. Anthropic explains the approach here.

Start with a document you already understand: a customer email, an approved product description or meeting notes. Ask for a specific change you can inspect. Save broader planning questions until you have decided what information and decisions belong in the answer.

For a hypothetical example, imagine a small design studio preparing a project update. Give Claude the actual milestones and ask for a client email. Keep the approval decision with the person who knows whether the dates and commitments are correct.

For your first trial, select one unfinished piece of work from this week. Write down what you need to send, who will read it and which details must remain unchanged.

How do you write a good prompt for Claude?

Write the request as a short working brief. Anthropic recommends explicit instructions, output requirements and relevant context rather than leaving Claude to infer the task. Claude prompting guidance.

• Deliverable: name the email, table, outline or revised passage.
• Reader: explain who needs it and why.
• Material: supply the information it should use.
• Boundaries: identify facts and commitments it must preserve.
• Uncertainty: specify what to ask or mark as missing.

Prepare [deliverable] for [reader]. The purpose is [next action]. Use this material: [input]. Preserve [important details]. Return [format and length]. If essential information is missing, ask before drafting. Separate your suggestions from information stated in the material.

Before sending, read the prompt without looking at your other documents. Add any information you were silently expecting Claude to know. Remove requirements that conflict, such as asking for a detailed explanation in a single short sentence.

Which seven Claude prompts can you use this week?

These are suggested templates for hypothetical business situations, not reports of measured results. Replace every bracketed field. After each draft, use the accompanying check before sharing it.

1. Turn a rough update into a client email

Write a project update for [client type] using these notes: [notes]. Open with the current status. Then cover completed work, the next milestone and any decision needed from the client. Keep it under 180 words. Preserve dates exactly. Do not turn a proposed date into a commitment. If the notes conflict, list the conflict before drafting.

Check every deadline against your project record. For additional email situations, use the email writing templates as a separate source of task ideas.

2. Compare supplier proposals without inventing a winner

Compare these supplier proposals for [purchase]: [proposal A] and [proposal B]. Our requirements are [requirements]. Create a table covering included work, exclusions, stated delivery terms and unanswered questions. Identify the source proposal for each entry. Mark missing information as “not stated.” Finish with questions we should send each supplier. Do not rank them unless the supplied information supports our stated criteria.

Check exclusions first. Send the unanswered questions before treating either proposal as complete. Keep your final choice separate from the comparison draft.

3. Build a content plan from customer questions

Suggest five content pieces for [business] using these customer questions: [questions]. Available material: [photos, demonstrations or approved explanations]. For each piece, give the customer question, main point, required material and next action. Use only offers listed here: [offers]. Keep ideas realistic for [team capacity]. Mark any idea that needs new information before we can publish it.

Remove ideas your team cannot support with the required material. For a different planning structure, see the content planning prompts.

4. Reply to an enquiry with a clear next step

Draft a reply to this enquiry: [message with personal details removed]. Our confirmed service terms are [terms]. Answer the customer's main question first. Explain the relevant service briefly, then ask one question needed to move forward. Keep the tone helpful and direct. Do not add discounts, availability or guarantees. If a requested detail is absent, identify it for me before drafting.

Check whether the customer received an answer before being asked another question. Compare approaches with the sales prompt templates when preparing your own reply library.

5. Find gaps in a freelance project brief

Review this project brief: [brief]. My proposed service is [service]. Extract the deliverables, approval process, supplied materials and deadline. Separate confirmed details from assumptions. Then write up to five questions that could change the work involved. Do not invent a budget or promise a schedule. Finish with a short message I can send to clarify the missing details.

Ask the questions before quoting. For related proposal tasks, explore the freelancer prompt collection.

6. Draft a meta description from an existing page

Write three meta description drafts for this page: [page text]. A meta description is a short summary supplied with a web page. The intended reader is [reader]. Each draft should describe the actual page and include [phrase] naturally. Avoid claims absent from the text. Explain which page detail supports each draft. Flag any mismatch between the target phrase and the page.

Choose the most accurate summary and edit it for clarity. For a separate walkthrough, read how to write a meta description.

7. Convert meeting notes into an approval checklist

Use these meeting notes: [notes]. Create a checklist of decisions awaiting approval, with the relevant note beside each item. Separately list agreed actions, named owners and stated deadlines. Write “not assigned” or “not stated” where appropriate. Do not treat suggestions as decisions. End with a short message asking participants to confirm or correct the checklist.

Have participants review the result. Assign missing owners yourself rather than asking Claude to infer who should be responsible.

Why give Claude a role in the system prompt?

Use a role to specify the perspective and tone you want. Anthropic describes role setting in the system prompt as a way to focus Claude's behavior. A system prompt is the general instruction an application supplies to the assistant. Role prompting guidance.

For a hypothetical internal writing assistant, try: “You are an editor for a small service business. Make customer messages clear while preserving every stated condition.” Follow that with the actual message and editing task.

In an ordinary chat, try the same role sentence at the beginning of your request. Describe a responsibility you can inspect. “Find unclear commitments” gives you a concrete review task; a grand professional title does not provide your business facts.

How many examples should a Claude prompt include?

Start with one example when you need to demonstrate a style. Anthropic's blog recommends adding more if needed; its technical documentation recommends 3–5 relevant, varied examples for example-based guidance. Treat these as guidance for different needs, not a compulsory count. Starting with one example, Choosing several examples.

Few-shot prompting simply means showing several examples of the input and desired answer. For a hypothetical support task, choose a straightforward question, an ambiguous request and a case where essential information is missing.

Label each input and approved answer. Add: “Follow the style and structure; use facts only from the new request.” Check the next output for names, prices or promises accidentally carried over from your examples.

How do you review an answer and build a prompt library?

Define what passes before you start adjusting wording. Anthropic's overview recommends clear success criteria, a way to test them and an initial prompt to improve. Prompt engineering overview.

1. Compare names, dates and commitments with the original material.
2. Check that missing details remain questions or explicit gaps.
3. Confirm that the draft answers the actual request.
4. Record what you had to change before using it.

Give targeted feedback: “The structure works, but the delivery promise is absent from my notes. Remove it and keep the other sections.” Test that revision on another real task before saving it.

Store the prompt with its purpose, required inputs, one approved example and a review checklist. Choose one template this week and compare the editing effort across several uses. Keep revising the part that creates repeated corrections.