Prompt templates for AI chats

Every AI power user has a mental list of go-to prompts: elaborate on this, give me a counterargument, explain this like I'm five. The problem is firing them requires breaking flow — you copy the text, switch focus to the input, retype the prompt, paste, and submit. Claude Chat HUD eliminates all of that. Select any text in an AI response, press a key, and your saved template fires directly on the selection. No copying, no tab switching, no context loss.

How prompt templates work in Claude Chat HUD

The workflow is entirely keyboard-driven:

1. Press Cmd+Shift+S (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+S (Windows) on any ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini page. A hint overlay appears over every response block.
2. Type a hint letter — a, b, c — to select a block. Drill down further to a sentence or word by pressing the hint again.
3. An action selector appears with your saved templates. Press the corresponding key to fire one.
4. The template fires inline on the selected text — no clipboard, no tab switch, no retyping.

The selected text is injected directly into the prompt. The whole flow from "I want to explore this phrase" to "prompt submitted" takes three keystrokes.

Build your template library

Claude Chat HUD lets you assign multiple templates to slots in the action selector. You pick which templates appear when you activate the overlay, so the right prompts are always one key away.

The extension ships with a set of common templates to get started:

• Elaborate — expand on a specific claim or section
• Define — get a definition for a term or concept
• Summarize — compress a long section into a few sentences
• Translate — translate the selected text into another language
• Fix this code — send a code block for correction
• Explain like I'm 5 — get a simpler restatement

You can also write your own. Any prompt that references the selected text can be saved as a template — custom instructions, profile-specific follow-ups, domain-specific workflows. Build the library once, use it across every conversation.

Who uses prompt templates

Prompt templates are most valuable when you repeatedly ask the same follow-up questions against different content. A few common patterns:

Developers

Drill into a code block from a ChatGPT or Claude response and fire explain this error or refactor this function directly on the selected code. No copy, no paste, no re-explaining context. The selection carries the full code block into the prompt.

Researchers

Select a finding or claim from an AI summary and fire summarize this finding, what's the counterargument, or cite sources for this. Use templates to rapidly stress-test claims without retyping queries from scratch.

Students

Highlight a confusing explanation and fire explain this concept differently or give me a concrete example. Templates turn a single AI response into a full study session — iterate on any part of the answer without losing your place.

Supported platforms

Claude Chat HUD's prompt template system works on all three major AI chat platforms:

• ChatGPT (chatgpt.com) — all conversation types
• Claude (claude.ai) — all conversation types
• Gemini (gemini.google.com) — all conversation types

The extension uses site-specific adapters to correctly identify response blocks, code sections, and prose paragraphs on each platform. Templates fire the same way regardless of which AI you're in.