Prompt Sensei

Prompting is becoming one of the most important engineering skills in the AI era. Prompt Sensei helps you improve your prompts while teaching you how to improve.

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Quickstart · FAQ · Privacy · Examples · Advanced setup · Discussions

Prompt Sensei is a quiet, local-first prompt coach for Claude Code and Codex. It gives stage-aware feedback, rewrites rough prompts into better ones, looks back on local history when you ask, and helps you practice one habit at a time.

It is built as a real host-integrated skill, not just a markdown rubric: Prompt Sensei supports hook-based observe comments, opt-in auto-observe hooks, hash-only prompt captures, quiet Stop-hook persistence, and compact-safe continuity where the host exposes the lifecycle events.

No cloud. No telemetry. No leaderboard. No raw prompt archive.

Prompt Sensei's score is a coaching signal, not an objective grade or a guarantee of better output. The real test is whether the improved prompt produces a more useful first draft, fewer clarification turns, safer agent behavior, and easier verification.

Why This Exists

AI coding agents do real work: they edit files, run commands, and make implementation choices. A vague prompt does not just produce a vague answer; it can produce broad edits, hidden assumptions, and extra revision loops.

Prompt Sensei is built around a simple belief:

• Prompting is an engineering skill.
• Engineering skills improve through feedback.
• Feedback should be kind, specific, private, and useful.

It does not treat fix this test as a bad prompt. It treats it as an early-stage prompt, then teaches the next step.

5-Minute Quickstart

Install for Claude Code:

git clone https://github.com/chengzhongwei/Prompt-sensei ~/.claude/skills/prompt-sensei
(cd ~/.claude/skills/prompt-sensei && npm install && npm run build)

Then start live coaching with /prompt-sensei observe inside Claude Code. For optional auto-start and privacy settings, run /prompt-sensei setup.

Install for Codex:

git clone https://github.com/chengzhongwei/Prompt-sensei ~/.codex/skills/prompt-sensei
(cd ~/.codex/skills/prompt-sensei && npm install && npm run build)

Then ask Codex in natural language: Use prompt-sensei observe mode. For optional hook-based auto-start, run npm run setup-hooks -- auto-observe folder or use /prompt-sensei setup after the skill is loaded.

Start live coaching in Claude Code:

/prompt-sensei observe

Try improving a rough prompt:

/prompt-sensei improve "fix this test"

Example output:

Prompt Sensei Improve
=====================
Stage:    Exploration
Score:    70 / 100  (Good)

What is missing:
  - failing test name
  - expected behavior
  - actual error output

Improved prompt:
  Help me debug this failing test.

  Test: [test name]
  Expected: [what should happen]
  Actual: [error output or wrong behavior]
  Related file: [file path]

  Return:
  1. Likely root cause
  2. Minimal fix
  3. Test command to verify

Habit to practice next:
  Add expected and actual behavior before asking for a fix.

See examples/prompt-gallery.md for more copyable before/after prompts.

Supported Environments

Prompt Sensei works best when the host tool can load the skill directly. It supports both Claude Code and Codex, with host-native hooks for optional auto-observe.

Cursor and other AI coding tools are not supported yet. /prompt-sensei observe is a Claude Code skill command. In Codex, natural-language requests depend on the host agent loading the installed skill. See advanced setup for the Claude Code/Codex hook matrix and trust notes.

Beginner Path

Start with:

/prompt-sensei observe

On first use, Prompt Sensei asks for local storage consent, starts coaching, then offers an optional auto-start choice. The simplest path is manual start; you can still use /prompt-sensei observe whenever you want.

For a one-time guided setup, use:

/prompt-sensei setup

Setup covers observe consent, optional host auto-start hooks, and whether to save redacted prompt previews. In Codex, a trust prompt for new or changed command hooks is expected; inspect commands with /hooks before enabling them. Advanced details live in docs/advanced-setup.md.

Commands

/prompt-sensei [observe|improve|lookback|setup|help]

Essential commands:

/prompt-sensei observe              # start live coaching
/prompt-sensei improve "fix this"   # rewrite a prompt with one teaching note
/prompt-sensei lookback             # analyze selected local prompt history
/prompt-sensei setup                # guided setup
/prompt-sensei help

More commands:

/prompt-sensei stop                 # stop coaching this session
/prompt-sensei report               # show local session trends
/prompt-sensei settings             # show local settings
/prompt-sensei update               # pull latest version and rebuild
/prompt-sensei clear                # delete local Prompt Sensei data

In Codex, use natural language equivalents such as Use prompt-sensei observe mode. or Use prompt-sensei to improve this prompt: "fix this test".

See docs/advanced-setup.md for settings commands, hook setup, Codex examples, and consent scopes.

For direct script checks, see advanced setup.

Settings

Prompt Sensei stores local preferences in ~/.prompt-sensei/settings.json. Defaults are intentionally quiet: auto observe off, redacted prompt previews off, and raw prompts never stored. Use /prompt-sensei setup for a guided path or docs/advanced-setup.md for the full settings reference.

How It Teaches

Prompt Sensei is stage-aware. A short exploration prompt can be reasonable early, while an execution prompt needs clearer context, boundaries, and verification.

The coaching line stays small:

[Sensei: 68/100 · Diagnosis; Tip: add the error message and file path]

Think of the score as prompt readiness for the current stage, not universal prompt quality. A 100/100 prompt can still produce a weak answer if the model lacks domain knowledge, the task is ambiguous outside the prompt, or the rubric does not fit the user's domain.

The report focuses on repeated habits:

Next habit:      End with the command, test, or edge case that proves the work.
Repeated gap:    add-verification-command (5×)
Average score:   81 / 100  (Good)

For the full philosophy, read docs/philosophy.md. For scoring details, read docs/scoring-rubric.md.

How Do I Know It Helps?

Prompt Sensei does not prove that a prompt is better just because the number went up. It gives a structured coaching signal.

To check whether it helped, compare the original and improved prompt on the same task: fewer clarification turns, fewer surprising edits, a better first answer, and easier verification. For calibration details and the skeptical version, see FAQ.

Lookback

/prompt-sensei lookback analyzes selected local Claude Code or Codex history after separate consent. It can inspect one session or recent sessions, generate coaching, and save a Markdown report only after confirmation. Privacy details live in docs/privacy.md, and workflow details live in docs/skill-flows.md.

Optional Host Hooks

Host hooks provide opt-in auto-start, hash-only background captures, hook-triggered observe comments, and quiet persistence of the final Sensei score line. They are optional and stay quiet unless consent/settings allow them. See advanced setup, Claude example hooks, and Codex example hooks.

Privacy

Prompt content is sensitive. Prompt Sensei stores nothing until you consent. After consent, it stores local metadata under ~/.prompt-sensei/; raw prompts are never stored.

Prompt Sensei's local scripts do not send prompt text, scores, reports, or local event data to a service. Lookback may show redacted user prompts to the current AI agent after separate consent.

See docs/privacy.md for details.

Contributing

Good first areas:

• realistic prompt improvement examples
• scoring rubric improvements
• redaction rule improvements
• report improvements
• support for other AI coding tools

Please keep changes aligned with the core philosophy: quiet, local-first, encouraging, and privacy-aware.

License

Apache-2.0 — Copyright 2026 Chengzhong Wei