AI Guides › Step-by-step guides
By Nigel Guy · 6 min read
Most people treat a prompt library as a bookmark folder: a long list you mean to open, never do, and then retype from memory. The prompts that matter sit one tab away from the work, so you paste whatever is nearest. The fix is to put the library inside Claude Code, where Claude can search it while you work.
The rule: don't carry prompts to Claude, let Claude fetch them. Install once, search with one command, and read what comes back before you run it.
Three terms, briefly. A plugin is a bundle that adds skills, commands and MCP servers to Claude Code. A marketplace is a catalogue of plugins that you register once. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard that lets Claude call outside tools; here the tool is "search the prompt library".
Start Claude Code with claude, then run:
/plugin marketplace add f/prompts.chat
f/prompts.chat is a GitHub owner/repo source. Claude Code should print Successfully added marketplace. This is a third-party marketplace, not Anthropic's, so auto-update is off by default for it (per Claude Code's plugin docs).
/plugin install prompts.chat@prompts.chat
In a session this opens the plugin's details rather than installing at once. Read the "Will install" list, because plugins can run hooks and MCP servers. Then pick a scope: Install for you (user scope) gives you it in every project; project scope shares it with collaborators; local scope keeps it to one repository. For a personal library, user scope is the usual choice.
Note: the source article's copy of this command had its @ section mangled by email obfuscation. The command above is the one in the project's own README.
Read the last line of the install summary. If it says Run /reload-plugins to activate, run that. Then type / and look for entries beginning /prompts.chat:. You can also open /plugin, go to the Installed tab, or run claude plugin list in your shell. If the commands are missing, open the Errors tab in /plugin.
Once the plugin is live it gives you two slash commands. Here are four searches to try, with my own example terms swapped in:
/prompts.chat:prompts weekly status report
/prompts.chat:prompts product photo background --type IMAGE
/prompts.chat:prompts refactor legacy function --category coding
/prompts.chat:skills pdf extraction
The first command looks through prompts and accepts three optional narrowing flags: --type, --category and --tag. The second looks through agent skills and accepts --category and --tag only. Behind both sit MCP tools that can search and fetch prompts and skills, and also save and improve them.
You can also ask in plain English. Here is a prompt that makes Claude choose carefully rather than grab the first hit:
You are helping me pick a prompt from the prompts.chat library using its search tools.
My task: [TASK_IN_ONE_SENTENCE]
Who the output is for: [AUDIENCE]
Format I need: [FORMAT, e.g. email, table, code diff]
Things to avoid: [CONSTRAINTS]
Steps:
1. Search the library for up to three candidate prompts that fit the task. Use filters only if they clearly apply.
2. For each candidate, show its title and a one-line summary of what it does.
3. Recommend one and say why it fits better than the others.
4. Adapt the chosen prompt to my task, putting any blanks I need to fill in square brackets.
5. Stop and show me the adapted prompt before running it.
If my task is too vague to choose between candidates, ask me one or two questions first rather than guessing. Do not invent prompts that the search did not return. Before answering, check that your recommendation matches my audience and format.
Fill in the four bracketed lines.
Account key (optional). To save prompts or skills back to your account, the plugin docs say to set an environment variable, with the key from prompts.chat/settings:
export PROMPTS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
Treat it like a password: keep it out of shared files and screenshots. Searching does not need it, according to the plugin documentation.
If you're not on Claude Code. The project documents a remote MCP server at https://prompts.chat/api/mcp and a local one via npx -y prompts.chat mcp. In Claude Code these map to:
claude mcp add --transport http prompts.chat https://prompts.chat/api/mcp
claude mcp add --transport stdio prompts-chat -- npx -y prompts.chat mcp
Other MCP clients take the same details in JSON under "mcpServers", with either a "url" or a "command" and "args"; check your client's own docs for the exact file. I have not tested other clients.
/mcp and confirm the prompts.chat server shows as connected./prompts.chat:prompts refactor legacy function --category coding and confirm that real entries come back./plugin if you stop using it.