prompte-mcp

An MCP server that enhances your prompts before Claude processes them — automatically applying chain-of-thought, few-shot, tree-of-thought, and other prompt engineering techniques based on what you're asking.

you type:   "fix this null pointer crash"

claude sees: "Work through this using the ReAct pattern — alternate between
              Thought (reasoning) and Action (what you would do), then give
              a final Answer.

              fix this null pointer crash"

---

Setup

No API key needed. Prompte runs entirely on your existing Claude Code or Codex session.

git clone https://github.com/AlanRoybal/prompte-mcp
cd prompte-mcp
node bin/setup.js

The setup script handles everything:

1. Registers the MCP server in ~/.claude/settings.json
2. Installs the UserPromptSubmit hook (automatic enhancement on every prompt)
3. Creates ~/.prompte/config.json with defaults

Then restart Claude Code.

Flags

node bin/setup.js --yes       # accept all defaults, no prompts
node bin/setup.js --dry-run   # preview changes without writing anything

Manual setup

If you prefer to edit ~/.claude/settings.json directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "prompte": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/prompte-mcp/bin/prompte-mcp.js"]
    }
  },
  "hooks": {
    "UserPromptSubmit": [
      {
        "matcher": "",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "python3 /path/to/prompte-mcp/hooks/user-prompt-submit.py"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

---

How it works

The MCP server handles classification and technique selection. Claude Code (your existing session) does the actual enhancement — no separate API calls, no extra costs.

your prompt
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────┐
│  Classifier │  keyword heuristics (no API call)
│             │  → intent: debugging / reasoning / generation / ...
└──────┬──────┘
       │  technique affinity scores
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│   Scorer    │  affinity × your learned acceptance rate
│             │  → selects best technique
└──────┬──────┘
       │  techniqueInstruction
       ▼
  Claude Code  ←── applies the technique using its own intelligence
       │
       ▼
    response

The scorer learns from you. Acceptance rates per technique are tracked in ~/.prompte/ — techniques you skip get demoted over time.

---

Two modes

Automatic (hook)

The UserPromptSubmit hook fires on every prompt silently — no tool call, no interruption. Claude receives the enhanced version without you doing anything.

Prefix a prompt with * to bypass:

* just answer this exactly as asked

Interactive (MCP tools)

When Claude calls enhance_prompt, it shows you the enhancement and waits for your decision before answering:

I've selected the Chain of Thought technique for this (debugging).

Original: why does my function crash when the list is empty?

Enhanced: Think through this step-by-step before giving your final
          answer. Show your reasoning explicitly.

          why does my function crash when the list is empty?

[A] Accept   [E] Edit   [S] Skip   [Q] Quit

Reply with a / e / s / q (or just say "accept", "skip", etc.):

Reply	What happens
a / accept	Claude answers using the enhanced prompt
e / edit	Paste your revised version, Claude uses that
s / skip	Claude answers your original prompt, no technique
q / quit	Claude stops, does nothing

Set autoAccept: true in ~/.prompte/config.json to skip the confirmation and apply silently.

Claude Code can also call these tools directly during a session:

Tool	What it does
enhance_prompt	Classify intent, select best technique, return techniqueInstruction for Claude to apply
list_techniques	All 8 techniques with your acceptance stats
get_stats	Session totals + current config
record_feedback	Mark an enhancement helpful/not (trains technique weights)
get_config	Read ~/.prompte/config.json
set_config	Write a config value

The CLAUDE.md in this repo tells Claude when to call enhance_prompt automatically — on debugging, reasoning, generation, architecture, and review prompts.

---

The 8 techniques

Technique	Best for	What it adds
Chain of Thought	Debugging, reasoning	Step-by-step reasoning before answering
Few-Shot	Generation, review	Concrete example to anchor output
Tree of Thought	Decisions, architecture	3 approaches with pros/cons, then a recommendation
Meta-Prompting	Architecture, generation	Restate understanding of the goal before answering
Role Prompting	Review, generation	Senior software engineer framing
Self-Consistency	Reasoning, debugging	Verify from a different angle, correct if wrong
Step-Back	Explanation, reasoning	Consider broader context and first principles first
ReAct	Debugging, multi-step	Interleaved Thought / Action / Observation steps

---

Configuration

~/.prompte/config.json:

{
  "enabled": true,
  "autoAccept": false,
  "bypassPrefix": "*",
  "preferredTechniques": [],
  "disabledTechniques": [],
  "llmClassifier": true,
  "maxPromptLength": 4000
}

Key	Default	Description
enabled	true	Master switch
bypassPrefix	"*"	Prompt prefix to skip enhancement
preferredTechniques	[]	Boost these techniques
disabledTechniques	[]	Never use these techniques
maxPromptLength	4000	Skip enhancement above this length

Per-project overrides: drop a .prompte file anywhere in your project tree (or a parent directory). Values override the global config.

---

Project structure

prompte-mcp/
├── bin/
│   ├── prompte-mcp.js      MCP server
│   └── setup.js            setup script
├── src/
│   ├── classifier/         intent classification (LLM + keyword fallback)
│   ├── techniques/         8 technique definitions
│   ├── engine/             classify → score → select → rewrite
│   └── config/             ~/.prompte/ storage and acceptance rate learning
├── hooks/
│   └── user-prompt-submit.py   UserPromptSubmit hook
└── CLAUDE.md               tells Claude when to call enhance_prompt