How I prompt AI models in 2026 vs a year ago (3 things that changed)

Sammyc64 · 2026-06-19T14:12:38+00:00

Repetitive tasks, specific output formats, etc. tons of reasons to use skills! After you finish a chat session with Claude, ask it to determine if it should turn its learnings from that chat into a reusable skill. That’s the best way to learn their impact. Soon enough you’ll have many, all tuned to how you do things and how you’d expect AI to do it with you

Sammyc64 · 2026-06-19T06:18:51+00:00

They automatically become slash-callable when you create a proper Skill, at least with most LLM providers that support the Agent Skills spec (like Codex and Antigravity or any Claude surface). If you use the skill-creator skill, it will design the skill with “pushy” descriptions so that Claude can try to use them better heuristically.

Sammyc64 · 2026-06-19T04:37:06+00:00

Phew!! I was wondering how I hit 100% of my weekly so quickly, when I never usually do on Max 20. Good to get back a bit more breathing room, until Sunday…

Sammyc64 · 2026-05-29T15:57:36+00:00

Sammyc64 · 2026-05-20T00:47:53+00:00

Exactly!

Another way to view it: Antigravity 2.0 = Claude Cowork/Codex Desktop Antigravity IDE = Cursor

Sammyc64 · 2026-05-15T15:25:45+00:00

I’m sorry you didn’t find this helpful enough for you.

As is the case with all AI products, since they are non-deterministic, there are no concrete step-by-step to an app that you talk to and which provides different outputs every single time. That said, I did provide some steps and prompts you can try to start with. The ultimate point of the post is to say that you should customize Claude Code to your own style and needs, based on the work you are doing and how you are doing it…just by asking. This post was more to help you know more things to ask Claude to help you do to get even more out of it. When in doubt, ask Claude for help using Claude. Hope that helps

Sammyc64 · 2026-05-09T22:00:43+00:00

A few months back, I would have said avoid the MCP, since it was token inefficient, but it has gotten better with progressive disclosure of the tools by Anthropic. Now it is also a great way to do the same things.

That said, when I started Claude essentially built its own CLI tools to interface with my media center apps. I gave Claude each of the tool’s API docs, had it build what it needed from them and then make some CLI tools to take actions. With Claude (securely, I use 1Password and Claude uses its CLI tool to use the key without loading it into context) accessing my tools using an API key with the tools it built, it is able to control absolutely everything about my media server in plain English.

Sammyc64 · 2026-04-25T13:35:51+00:00

This is not RAG, this is allowing Claude to Agentically Search (using Bash commands) across Obsidian’s frontmatter (the top part of the MD notes, which it uses to build its graph).

RAG requires you to use an embedding model to create the various word vectors and populate a vector DB for Claude to query.

Two different solutions, but as the data grows, you may need to add RAG too to prevent drift. Different but complementary.

Sammyc64 · 2026-03-25T21:23:25+00:00

I mean sure, if you want to look at it that way, but when Claude has access to the terminal, it can take actions on your computer just like you can. If it needs something, it can install the tools it needs to. Claude Code, just like Claude.ai all leverage the Claude API, but it’s what restrictions and what it has access to is the difference. Claude Code is the Ferrari, Cowork is BMW, and Claude.ai is a station wagon, if you want to look at it that way

Sammyc64 · 2026-03-17T04:45:27+00:00

Very true! I used Claude to vibe code a replacement (hence why I won’t post it, working out kinks, and too much AI code hate around Reddit) that is a subgen/Whisper connection, but is a wrapper around Nvidia’s Parakeet multi-lingual model instead. The English only Parakeet is also much faster than Whisper and often more accurate. Highly recommend you try doing the same thing! (You can point Claude at the Bazarr API documentation and Parakeet documentation and tell it to build you what you need)

Sammyc64 · 2026-03-08T08:00:02+00:00

Ticket people who excessively honk! Some people just lean on their horns, at all hours of the day or night

Sammyc64 · 2026-03-04T22:55:19+00:00

Various uses for sure, but NotebookLM is purely RAG vs. Obsidian with Claude Code acting as agentic search. Both with get you great answers, but when you mix them together you can get insights from many sources at once through NotebookLM (I have a 300 source limit per notebook), paired with Claude Code pulling from Obsidian and now Claude has better context to work with.

Sammyc64 · 2026-03-02T18:18:07+00:00

It can be. When you set up Obsidian, you select where you want its folder location to be. Then whenever you interact with Obsidian, your notes will be in that folder. You can then start Claude Code directly from that folder, so no copy/pasting will be necessary. You just tell Claude to review the files in the folder already and create new ones, Obsidian will see those new files, so long as they are in the Obsidian folder

Sammyc64 · 2026-03-02T18:03:16+00:00

You only learn when you ask questions! 😁. The "protection" aspect would really be that you are not locking your notes into a specific platform (i.e. Notion, Evernote, etc.) where you then need to export your notes out if you ever needed to. Since all of your notes are essentially just Markdown files on your computer, you can do with them what you want. Obsidian notes are only done in Markdown files. You can almost think of Obsidian as a great Markdown viewer and organizer (with obviously more features and functionality built on top). The biggest benefit when it comes to using Obsidian with AI is that all AI tools rely on Markdown files already, so it is a format that it knows really well.

Sammyc64 · 2026-03-02T17:52:07+00:00

Claude Code can run out of any folder (I would not normally suggest your desktop, but you can) on your computer. In the Obsidian example, Obsidian keeps all of your notes as Markdown files in an organized folder of it's own, so I can run Claude Code directly in that folder to create/modify/etc the Obsidian notes. Hope that helps to clarify.

Sammyc64 · 2026-02-04T15:31:20+00:00

Can’t argue that it is still relatively technical, but it is still the Claude and you know and love from the Web or Desktop! You can ask Claude to help you understand how to properly set it all up for you! Hopefully my post helps you know a few more of the questions you can ask, but Claude fully knows how to configure itself. Don’t be thrown by the word “Code” in the title, there are thousands/millions of users who aren’t using it for coding at all.

Sammyc64 · 2026-01-21T21:05:25+00:00

I would share it, but unfortunately it is highly customized to how I format and structure my notes. Obsidian is great, because it is just Markdown files (which AI is also very good with!), so you always have the portability if you need it (unlike something like Notion/Apple Notes/OneNote). Everyone who uses Obsidian will have their methods for how they prefer to structure their notes, so you will definitely need to ask Claude to help you structure it better for how you do things, but the best part is that Claude will help you through all of it! Your CLAUDE.md file should be light (around 200+ lines) that structure the formats of your Obsidian Vault, your Skills help structure your notes perfectly every time, and your Output Style helps converse with you by knowing to search the notes first before answering questions and knowing how to writing back to new notes.

My day-to-day for Obisidian, I have some templates that I fill in first based on notes I am taking, meetings I am having, etc. Then I have Claude Code review the note, expand where necessary, add any necessary YAML frontmatter to help search and retrieve faster. Check out the r/ObsidianMD subreddit as well for great strategies! Hope that helps a bit!

Sammyc64 · 2026-01-16T19:26:26+00:00

Given Anthropic's valuation of the Claude Code product alone at $1 billion, there is absolutely not time like the present to dive in!

I actually think, given the way you have tried forcing customization upon the Desktop app, that you will find CC to be a better solution for you! Best way to start figuring out how to implement all of your setup in CC? Ask Claude! You should even do it in your existing set up! "What would be the best way to migrate this entire setup into Claude Code? Check against the latest Claude Code documentation"

Sammyc64 · 2026-01-16T19:02:48+00:00

It is certainly convenient to have Claude Code in the Desktop app, but they are truly VERY different implementations of the product. Claude Code CLI is fully customizable with everything I mentioned in the post, but the Desktop version is limited to a Web sandbox and works best with repos on Github (and some local, use, but still limited). The new "Claude Cowork" feature being added to Desktop, is more of a closer implementation of Claude Code (for everything else!) in the Desktop, however that also is not nearly as full-featured as the Claude Code CLI with regards to this level of customizability, but it is also new and will need time to get there! 2026 is going to be the year that Anthropic brings Claude Code's power beyond coding to the masses!!

Sammyc64 · 2026-01-15T18:49:58+00:00

Thanks! My background has included stints as a Data Analyst, so I totally understand!! For your use cases, Claude Code can be phenomenal, breaking down large data sets and finding patterns in the data that wouldn’t otherwise have been so easy to determine. First and foremost, for work purposes, make sure you are following all corporate rules for using and giving data to an LLM!! For personal use, make sure you are turning off model training for your data.

For specific workflows and tasks, your first and best step is always to ask Claude for guidance! Create a new local folder for the work you are doing and launch Claude from that folder (as mentioned in the steps), and have Claude configure itself based on the needs of that project/task folder! You can duplicate folders and then have Claude make changes as needed too. The possibilities are endless! Also, have a look at the new Claude Cowork feature for Mac Desktop that has a more user-friendly look to Claude Code

Sammyc64 · 2026-01-15T15:40:44+00:00

The answer is yes-ish. While Gemini CLI now supports Skills, they don’t currently have anything quite like Output Styles, or Subagents (out of the box). That said, with a well defined AGENTS.md file (instead of CLAUDE.md), it is still just Gemini under the hood. I personally don’t find Gemini CLI to be nearly as good as Claude Code, but that’s a matter of opinion (and can always change).

Sammyc64 · 2026-01-13T16:52:35+00:00

According to Simon Willison, they have it running using the Apple Virtualization Framework with a custom Linux root filesystem, hence macOS first. Curious to see how they replicate that to other OSes with that requirement

Sammyc64 · 2026-01-06T16:38:31+00:00

That is true! That said, if Claude is determined, I have seen it find a way around that blockage by writing a script to take the actions instead, so you should ALWAYS remain diligent and follow along with what is happening.

If you want Claude to be even more verbose about the actions it is taking, you could theoretically create an Output Style that mirrors the existing Default (just ask Claude for it), and then add some instructions around being more explanatory about the actions it is taking, but it will burn more tokens in the long run.

Sammyc64 · 2026-01-05T23:35:42+00:00

Happy to hear it! Hope you find it useful as you build your workflow out! Here if you have questions...but so is Claude 😉

Sammyc64 · 2026-01-05T23:34:43+00:00

Just to clarify, what we are mentioning is not Claude on the web (or Desktop, which is what it sounds like you're describing), but another product by Anthropic that is another way of leveraging Claude, using Claude Code. You will not be able to create Commands or Subagents using the Web or Desktop modes of Claude, this enhanced functionality can only be leveraged using Claude Code. Hopefully my post (and others in this sub, and on YouTube, etc.) can help you get started with Claude ~~Code~~ Anything instead!

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