Claude Code Prompts: 13 Copy-Paste Templates That Ship Apps

The best Claude Code prompts give the AI three things: a clear goal, the context it can’t guess, and a way to check its own work. Every prompt below follows that pattern. They’re written for founders who don’t read code — copy them, fill in the brackets, and paste them into Claude Code as-is.

If your sessions keep drifting — you ask for one fix and get three refactors, or the app breaks in a new place every time it improves — the prompts are the problem, and prompts are fixable.

Before you start: the setup prompts

1. The PRD prompt. Your first message to Claude Code should never be improvised. Write a one-page plan first (we cover exactly what goes in it in our PRD template for AI app builders), then open with:

Read PRD.md in this folder. Before writing any code, ask me up to
5 clarifying questions about anything ambiguous. Then build v1 with
ONLY the features in section 4. Treat section 5 as off-limits.

The clarifying-questions line is the difference between a first draft that’s close and one that’s generic.

2. The rules file. Claude Code automatically reads a file called CLAUDE.md at the start of every session, which makes it the place to store decisions so you stop repeating them:

Create a CLAUDE.md for this project. Record: what this app is
(one paragraph), the rules you must always follow (never add new
libraries without asking, keep all explanations non-technical),
and how I test changes. Update it whenever we make a lasting decision.

3. The plain-English tour. Run this whenever the project stops feeling like yours:

Explain what this app currently does, screen by screen, in plain
English. No file names, no jargon. Then list anything that's
half-built or doesn't work yet.

Building: the prompts that add features

4. One feature at a time. Scope is the whole game. Ask for one thing without guardrails and the AI will volunteer “improvements” to five others:

Build [feature] exactly as described in the PRD. Do not change,
refactor, or "improve" any other part of the app. When you're done,
give me 3 numbered steps to test it in the browser myself.

5. Copy the existing pattern. Apps get harder to change when every feature is built a different way. Point new work at old work:

Add [feature]. Build it the same way [existing feature] is built:
same structure, same style, same error handling. Do not add any
new libraries or services without asking me first.

6. The design pass. Claude Code can work from a picture. Screenshot a site whose look you admire and:

Here's a screenshot of a design I like. Restyle [screen] to match
this look — colors, spacing, typography — without changing what the
screen does. Adapt the style to my app; don't copy their content,
name, or logo. Then tell me what to open to see before and after.

Our full screenshot-to-design prompt, with the guardrails, is free on the resources page.

When it breaks: the debugging prompts

7. Symptoms, never solutions. You’re not qualified to prescribe the fix, and the good news is you don’t have to be. Describe what you saw:

Expected: [what should happen]. What happened instead: [what you saw,
including the exact moment it went wrong]. Find the root cause before
changing anything, explain it to me in one plain-English paragraph,
and only then fix it.

The “root cause before changing anything” clause is there to keep the AI from patching the symptom and leaving the disease.

8. The error paste. Error messages are for the AI, not for you:

I got this error: [paste the whole thing]. Explain what it means as
if I've never programmed, fix it, then tell me exactly what to click
to confirm it's gone.

9. The checkpoint. Run this every time the app reaches a state you’d be sad to lose:

The app works right now. Review what's changed, leave out anything
sensitive (API keys, passwords, .env files), and commit the rest
with a clear message describing what works, so we can roll back to
this exact point if a future change breaks something.

A checkpoint turns a broken afternoon into a one-line rollback instead of a restart.

Before strangers use it: the safety prompts

10. The security audit. This prompt targets the failure modes that kill vibe-coded apps once real users arrive: leaked API keys, and users who can grant themselves free premium. The short version:

Act as a senior application security engineer. Audit my app for:
(1) sensitive fields users can edit themselves (subscription status,
credits), (2) API keys visible in the browser, (3) missing rate
limits on anything that costs me money per use. For each finding,
explain the risk in plain English and propose a fix. Wait for my
approval before changing any code.

The full version, with four named vulnerability checks and the fix for each spelled out, is on the resources page, and we walk through why each one matters in how to build an app with AI.

11. The stranger test. You know where everything is, which makes you the worst possible tester:

Review this app as if you're a first-time user opening it on a
phone. Trace the main flow from the PRD step by step through the
screens. List every point where a new user would be confused, stuck,
or unsure the app did anything. Don't fix — report.

Keeping it healthy: the maintenance prompts

12. The dead-weight review. Half-built features pile up in vibe-coded apps, because adding always feels safer than deleting:

List everything in this project that is unused, half-built, or
unreachable by a real user. For each item say what removing it
would risk. Don't delete anything until I approve the list.

13. The session handoff. Long projects span many sessions, and context evaporates between them:

Summarize the current state of this project in PROJECT_NOTES.md:
what's built and working, what's in progress, what we decided and
why, and what's next. Write it so a fresh session can pick up
without me re-explaining anything.

How to write your own

Every prompt above follows the same skeleton, and once you see it you can improvise endlessly:

1. Set the role or the rule (“act as a security engineer,” “do not touch other features”).
2. Give the context the AI can’t guess: the PRD, the screenshot, the pasted error, the expected-vs-actual.
3. Demand a check you can run yourself (“3 steps to test it in the browser,” “tell me what to click”).

Skip step 3 and you’re taking the AI’s word that it works. The check is the point. For picking which AI tool to aim these prompts at in the first place, see the best AI for coding.

The bottom line

Thirteen prompts cover the whole journey: plan it, build it one feature at a time, debug by symptom, checkpoint what works, audit it before strangers arrive, and hand context to the next session. Copy them today and your Claude Code sessions drift less and finish more. The bigger playbook covers what prompts can’t: choosing an idea worth building and turning the finished app into income. That’s Software Secrets 2.0, and the whole book is free.