Prompt Templates

Build a library of reusable instructions and append them to prompts without retyping them every time.

Most people end up saying the same things to their agents over and over — use our test conventions, never touch the migration folder, write the commit message in this style. Prompt Templates let you write those once.

Prompt templates in settings

Building the library

Settings → AI → Prompt Templates is where templates live. Add, edit, hide, or remove them from one page. A template is just a name and a block of text.

Hiding a template keeps it around without offering it — useful for the one you only need during a migration.

Turning them on per terminal

Templates are opt-in per terminal. On any AI terminal you choose which enabled templates are appended when you send. A reviewer terminal and a builder terminal can carry completely different standing instructions.

Because it is per terminal, a template never leaks into an agent you did not mean it for.

Inserting one at the cursor

You do not have to append. In Agent Input, type @, open the Templates tab, and insert any enabled template directly where your cursor is. That is the right move when the instruction belongs in the middle of a longer prompt.

What to put in one

Templates work best for things that are true about your project rather than about this task:

  • Coding conventions the agent keeps forgetting
  • Files or folders that are off-limits
  • The format you want plans, commit messages, or summaries in
  • The test command and how to interpret its output
  • A house style for comments and naming

Anything task-specific belongs in the prompt itself.

Templates vs skills vs project instructions

Three things overlap here, and they are worth telling apart:

  • Prompt templates are 1DevTool's, appended to prompts you send from Agent Input. They work with every agent, including ones that have no instruction file of their own.
  • Skills and slash commands belong to the agent and live in its own directory. See Skills & Slash Commands.
  • Project instruction files (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, and friends) are read by the agent itself on startup and apply to every session in that repository.

Use a template when the instruction is yours and you want it applied selectively; use a project file when it should apply to everyone, always.

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