Claude has no hidden commands. Words like "steelman" and "pre-mortem" work because they are well-known thinking methods that Claude understands. Here are 15 as ready prompts, each one making Claude test your idea instead of just agreeing.
What you need
A Claude account. The free plan is enough for all of these. Paid plans give you more usage. See Claude plans and pricing.
The prompts also work in ChatGPT or Gemini, because they are plain English.
Your own plan, pitch, essay or question to test.
Step by step
Open a new chat in Claude.
Paste one prompt below. Replace the text in [brackets] with your own details.
Add context. Anthropic's prompting guide says Claude does better when you say what you want and why. "I'm a student in Pune with a ₹20,000 budget" changes the answer a lot.
Push back on the answer: "Which of these is most likely?" or "What should I do first?"
The 5 from the reel
1. ELI5 (explain like I'm five)
Explain [topic] like I'm 5 years old. Use one everyday example from Indian life. Then explain it again at a college level, so I can see what the simple version left out.2. Pre-mortem The pre-mortem is a real project-planning method. Psychologist Gary Klein wrote about it in Harvard Business Review in 2007.
Run a pre-mortem on my plan. Imagine it is 6 months from now and the plan has failed badly. Write the story of why it failed. List the top 7 causes, rate each one for likelihood and impact, and give me one thing I can do this week to prevent each.
My plan: [describe it]3. Steelman
Steelman the other side. Make the strongest, most fair case against my view, the way a smart person who disagrees would argue it. Don't attack a weak version. Then tell me which of their points I can't easily answer.
My view: [your view]4. Red team
Red team this. Act as a tough critic, a competitor, a doubtful customer and a lawyer, one after another. Attack my [pitch/decision] from each angle. End with the 3 biggest weak spots, ranked.
Here it is: [paste]5. First principles
Break this down from first principles. Ignore common advice. List the basic facts that are actually true here, then rebuild a solution only from those facts. Point out where the usual approach rests on an assumption.
Problem: [describe it]10 more
6. Ask me first
Before you answer, ask me up to 5 questions that would change your advice. Wait for my replies, then answer.
Task: [describe it]7. Assumption check
List every assumption in my plan, stated and unstated. Mark each one as safe, risky or unknown, and tell me how to test the risky ones cheaply.
Plan: [paste]8. Inversion
Instead of how to succeed at [goal], tell me exactly how I could guarantee failure. Then turn each point into a rule I should follow.9. Second-order effects
If I do [decision], what happens next? And what happens after that? Walk through the effects at 1 week, 6 months and 2 years, including side effects on people other than me.10. Grade it with a rubric
First write a 5-point rubric for a great [cover letter/essay/pitch]. Then score my draft out of 10 on each point, quote the weakest lines, and rewrite only those lines.
Draft: [paste]11. Teach and test
Teach me [topic] in 5 short steps. After each step, ask me one question and wait for my answer before moving on. Correct me if I'm wrong.12. Decision table
I'm choosing between [option A], [option B] and [option C]. Make a table with the criteria that matter most for someone in my situation: [your situation]. Score each option, explain the scores, and tell me which one you'd pick and what would change your mind.13. How sure are you?
Answer my question, then label each key claim as high, medium or low confidence. For anything low, tell me how I can check it myself.
Question: [ask]14. Three experts disagree
Have three fictional experts discuss my problem: a cautious finance person, a bold founder and a customer. Let them disagree openly for a few rounds, then summarise where they agree and what I should do.
Problem: [describe it]15. Cut it in half
Rewrite this in half the words without losing any key point. Keep my tone. Then show me which sentences you cut and why.
Text: [paste]Good to know
These are prompt patterns, not secret codes. They work in any good AI chat app, and results vary from chat to chat.
Claude can still be wrong. Check tax, legal, health or money advice with a qualified person before you act.
Don't paste private documents, ID numbers or client data you aren't allowed to share.
Sources
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