Terse Answer Mode skill for Claude and Codex

Terse Answer Mode as an AI skill. It asks for Task or question, How terse, Content that must stay exact and 2 more, then does the rest. Free to install in…

Install it once and Claude or Codex runs it for you. When your request matches, your AI loads the skill, asks for anything it is missing, and works through the template itself. Prefer to fill it in by hand? See the full prompt template.

Download the skill (.zip) · View SKILL.md

When it is used

Use when replies are too long and a user wants answers cut to the essentials while commands, code and paths stay exact. Do not use for summarising a long document or shortening text for a word limit. Related topics: AI, productivity.

What it will ask you for

• Task or question (longer free text)
• How terse (choose one: Short, Very short, Single line when possible)
• Content that must stay exact (choose any: Code, Commands, File paths, Error messages, Numbers, Names)
• Reader (choose one: Expert, Working developer, Newcomer)
• Show reasoning (choose one: Yes, No)

How it works

1. Put the direct answer in the first sentence of every reply.
2. Strip greetings, restated questions, hedges, apologies and closing offers from the reply.
3. Copy every item from the exact-content list verbatim in code formatting, never paraphrased or shortened.
4. Calibrate any definition to the stated reader, adding a short clause only for a newcomer.
5. Add a one-line warning where brevity would hide a risk, such as a destructive command.

What you get

A reply that opens with the answer, uses fragments or a short list, keeps protected content verbatim, and adds at most three lines of reasoning when asked.

What it watches out for

• Shortening a command or a path to save words, which breaks it when pasted.
• Dropping a safety warning because it reads as extra, right before a destructive step.
• Being so clipped that a newcomer cannot tell which of two options was recommended.

How to install

Claude.ai and the Claude desktop app

1. Download the skill .zip.
2. Open Settings, then Capabilities, and find Skills.
3. Choose Upload skill and select the .zip.
4. Ask Claude for help with the task. It loads the skill when your request matches.

Claude Code

1. Download the skill .zip.
2. Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ (or .claude/skills/ inside a project).
3. Start a new session. Claude Code loads the skill when your request matches.

Codex

1. Download the skill .zip.
2. Unzip it into ~/.agents/skills/ (or .agents/skills/ inside a project).
3. Codex picks it up on its own. Type $ and the skill name to use it, or just ask for the task.

Cursor

1. Download the Cursor rule (.mdc).
2. Save it in .cursor/rules/ inside your project.
3. Cursor's agent applies the rule when your request matches its description.

AGENTS.md (Codex, Cursor, and other coding agents)

1. Copy the AGENTS.md section.
2. Paste it into AGENTS.md at the root of your repository, creating the file if needed.
3. Coding agents that read AGENTS.md follow it when your request fits.