🎛️ One-word mode shortcuts: build your own Claude codes

Power users don't retype instructions — they trigger them with a keyword. "Mode shortcuts" are one-word triggers you define once that switch how Claude thinks, sounds, or formats. Here's the system for building your own set, plus a 50-shortcut starter pack organized by what they change.

How the system works

A shortcut is just a mapping you teach Claude: when I say X, do Y. Three places to store the mappings, in order of power:

1. Paste-at-start: begin a chat with your shortcut list ("For this conversation: SHARP means..., BRIEF means..."). Works everywhere, costs one paste.
2. Custom instructions / Project instructions: save the list once; every chat in that Project understands your shortcuts automatically.
3. Skills: for whole workflows, not just modes — the skills guide covers it.

Convention that keeps it readable: thinking modes before your request, format modes after. "SHARP: should I raise prices? → BRIEF" reads exactly as it runs.

Starter pack: thinking modes

• SHARP — skip diplomacy; direct answers, name the weakest point of my idea.
• QUIZ — interview me before answering; don't guess missing context.
• DEEP — reason it through step by step; surface the non-obvious angles before concluding. (Extended thinking is the heavy version.)
• FLIP — argue the strongest case against my position.
• AUTOPSY — assume this plan failed a year from now; explain what killed it.
• ROOTS — ask "why" repeatedly until we hit the real cause.
• RIPPLE — trace second- and third-order consequences.
• TRADE — what saying yes to this makes me say no to.
• SORT — rank my list by impact vs. effort; tell me what to drop.
• ODDS — label every claim solid / likely / check-this.

Starter pack: expert lenses

One word swaps the perspective: VETERAN (20-year practitioner, no hand-holding), ROOKIE (assume I know nothing), BUYER (skeptical customer reading my copy), BANKER (numbers lens), LAWYER (risk and fine print — with the reminder to verify with a real one), BUILDER (systems lens, find the bottleneck), EDITOR (clarity and rhythm), SHRINK (what's the psychology here).

Starter pack: format modes

BRIEF (3 bullets max), TABLE, STEPS (numbered actions), LIST (checklist), NOTE (ready-to-send message), PAGE (one-pager with headers), PAIR (two contrasting versions), TRIO (three variations), PLAIN (8th-grade English, zero jargon), HUMAN (strip the AI tells: no "in conclusion," varied sentence length, contractions, sounds like me — pair with two samples of your writing).

Starter pack: classic frameworks

These load public frameworks by name — Claude knows them all: SWOT, PREMORTEM, EISENHOWER (urgent/important grid), MOSCOW (must/should/could/won't), AIDA and PAS (copy structures), FIRSTPRINCIPLES, SCAMPER (idea variations), 5W1H. No definition needed — the framework name IS the shortcut.

Stacking

Modes combine: "VETERAN + SHARP: here's my expansion plan → BRIEF." Thinking mode, lens, request, format — a four-word brief that would take a paragraph to type. That's the entire trick.