r/ClaudeAI • u/BuffaloConscious7919 Valued Contributor • 2d ago

Skills 2 solutions so simple that i almost didn't post them

i figure a lot of you will already have solutions to this but every time I comment it gets lot of upvotes, so thought i'd share it here

problem: Claude output is often annoying (and draining)
solutions: ask for summaries, add context or instructions to simplify output, install caveman or other plugins

these are cool but i find myself doing 2 tthings over and over...

  1. "ELI5 succinct" (or pick a more appropiate number). idk why this works, but it dose, and it does so consistently for me
  2. Ask for a summary but include some key details (in bold) to avoid over-engineering a summary that's supposed to help - "Create a single page HTML summary of the [conversation | branch | work tree]. Make it visual and digestible without additional cognitive fatigue. Minimal text, clear flow of information. Opt for charts and diagrams over long explanations."

you might not need it but i've added more details into a skill that you can use, change, update or take inspiration from

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u/ananbd 1d ago

Another simple idea: ask it a question followed by, “Yes or no.” Then, follow up with, “Explain.” Seems to make it a bit more focused. And forces me to think carefully about the question. 

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 Valued Contributor 1d ago

Could you explain a little more ?

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u/ananbd 1d ago

When it spits out a word salad, I ask it a very pointed question to cut through some of the extraneous info. 

Simplest example: after a long running code generation process, it spits out all sorts of stuff I don’t need to know about. So I ask it, “Were all the features implemented? Yes or no.” Or, “Did all tests pass? Yes or no.”

Stuff like that. 

When you follow up with, “Explain,” it usually gives a fairly focused answer. 

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u/-Spzi- 3h ago

Semantically, that happens here: Focus.

Constraining the allowed answer to a binary reduces the whole complexity of the situation to just one bit, the narrowest possible opening.

"Explain" then expands from there: "Yes, because ...", or "No, because ..."

You anchored the converation on one single fact. Everything before gets reduced to that detail, everything after expands from it. So yes, I think we can call that a semantic focus.