There's no secret menu here and nothing to turn on. These are just shorthand, and they work because typing one word is faster than typing the paragraph it stands for, so you'll actually do it.
How to use them: type the word, a colon, then your request.
SPEC: I want something that turns my client intake answers into a first draft planThat's it, and it works in Claude, in a fresh chat, and on your phone in the pickup line.
The ten
1. ASKME
Stops it from guessing. It interviews you first, one question at a time, and only then does it do the work. It's the most useful one on this list, and almost nobody uses it.
ASKME: I want to build something that handles my client onboarding. Ask me
questions one at a time until you know enough to write a spec, and don't
write anything until you're done asking.Use it when you know what you want in your head but can't get it into words (which is most of the time).
2. SPEC
Turns your rambling into a written specification. You explain the mess however it comes out, and it hands back something precise enough to build from.
SPEC: every time a client fills in my intake form I spend forty minutes
writing their first session plan, and I want that to be mostly done for me3. SMALLER
Cuts it down to something you can finish this week. Everything you describe will come back too big, because it's trained on people who have teams.
SMALLER: cut this to the smallest version I could build in four evenings
and still use for real4. SHOWME
Gives you the actual work instead of a description of it. You'll be amazed how often you get a helpful summary of what you could do instead of the email itself.
SHOWME: don't explain the approach, write the actual email5. STEPS
Exact clicks and commands, no theory. You get them numbered and in order, written as if you've never done it before.
STEPS: how do I put this on the internet so my sister can open it on her
phone. Numbered steps, tell me exactly what to click, assume I've never
done this.6. WHATBREAKS
What goes wrong when a real person touches it. Ask this before you send anything to anyone, and it'll find what you'd otherwise have found on Thursday in front of a client.
WHATBREAKS: here's my form. What happens when someone leaves a field blank,
or pastes in something enormous, or uses it on a phone?7. PLAINLY
Strips the jargon out. It explains every term the way you'd explain it to a smart friend who doesn't work in this.
PLAINLY: what is a webhook and why does this need one8. WHYTHIS
Makes it justify each choice. You're the one who has to live with the decisions, and this is how you learn what's actually going on without taking a course.
WHYTHIS: you picked this way of storing the data. Why that and not
something simpler?9. REDO
Same problem, completely different approach. You'll get a fresh attempt instead of a tweak, because it'll keep polishing the first idea forever unless you say this.
REDO: throw that out and solve it a completely different way. Don't reuse
anything from the first attempt.10. MYVOICE
Rewrites it so it sounds like you. Paste in three things you actually wrote first, and then ask.
MYVOICE: here are three emails I wrote. Rewrite the draft above so it sounds
like the same person, including the parts that aren't polished.Stack two when you're stuck
They combine, and the combinations are where it gets good.
ASKME + SPEC when you have a vague itch and need a plan, because it interviews you and then writes the spec from your own answers.
SMALLER + STEPS when you're overwhelmed, since it cuts the work down and then tells you exactly what to do first.
WHATBREAKS + SHOWME before anything goes to a real person. It finds the holes and then writes the fix instead of describing it.
PLAINLY + WHYTHIS when you feel like you're nodding along without understanding. This pairing is basically a free tutor.
Which one when
You can't describe what you want → ASKME
You described it and it came back enormous → SMALLER
It keeps telling you about the work instead of doing it → SHOWME
You're about to show it to somebody → WHATBREAKS
You're lost in words you don't know → PLAINLY
It's stuck in a bad idea and keeps improving it → REDO
Everything it writes sounds like a brochure → MYVOICE
You're staring at it with no idea what to physically do → STEPS
Why these work, in one paragraph
None of this is magic. Claude predicts plausible text, so if you give it a vague ask it gives you the middle of the internet, which is beige by definition because the middle of anything is. Each of these words is a shortcut to being specific about the KIND of answer you want, and being specific is what gets you a good answer. The day you stop needing this list is the day you're writing that instruction into the request without thinking about it.
I type ASKME and SMALLER more than anything else on this list, usually at 9pm, usually with a laptop balanced on something it shouldn't be balanced on.
Steal these, rename them or make up your own, because there's nothing sacred about the words themselves. Being specific is what matters.