Check out Piebald

We've released Piebald, the ultimate agentic AI developer experience.
Download it and try it out for free! https://piebald.ai/

_{Scroll down for Claude Code's system prompts. 👇}

Claude Code System Prompts

Important

NEW (January 23, 2026): We've added all of Claude Code's ~40 system reminders to this list—see System Reminders.

This repository contains an up-to-date list of all Claude Code's various system prompts and their associated token counts as of Claude Code v2.1.21 (January 27th, 2026). It also contains a CHANGELOG.md for the system prompts across 79 versions since v2.0.14. From the team behind Piebald.

This repository is updated within minutes of each Claude Code release. See the changelog, and follow @PiebaldAI on X for a summary of the system prompt changes in each release.

---

Why multiple "system prompts?"

Claude Code doesn't just have one single string for its system prompt.

Instead, there are:

• Large portions conditionally added depending on the environment and various configs.
• Descriptions for builtin tools like Write, Bash, and TodoWrite, and some are fairly large.
• Separate system prompts for builtin agents like Explore and Plan.
• Numerous AI-powered utility functions, such as conversation compaction, CLAUDE.md generation, session title generation, etc. featuring their own systems prompts.

The result—110+ strings that are constantly changing and moving within a very large minified JS file.

Tip

Want to modify a particular piece of the system prompt in your own Claude Code installation? Use tweakcc. It—

• lets you customize the the individual pieces of the system prompt as markdown files, and then
• patches your npm-based or native (binary) Claude Code installation with them, and also
• provides diffing and conflict management for when both you and Anthropic have conflicting modifications to the same prompt file.

Extraction

This repository contains the system prompts extracted using a script from the latest npm version of Claude Code. As they're extracted directly from Claude Code's compiled source code, they're guaranteed to be exactly what Claude Code uses. If you use tweakcc to customize the system prompts, it works in a similar way—it patches the exact same strings in your local installation as are extracted into this repository.

Prompts

Note that some prompts contain interpolated bits such as builtin tool name references, lists of available sub agents, and various other context-specific variables, so the actual counts in a particular Claude Code session will differ slightly—likely not beyond ±20 tokens, however.

Agent Prompts

Sub-agents and utilities.

Sub-agents

• Agent Prompt: Explore (516 tks) - System prompt for the Explore subagent.
• Agent Prompt: Plan mode (enhanced) (633 tks) - Enhanced prompt for the Plan subagent.
• Agent Prompt: Task tool (extra notes) (127 tks) - Additional notes for Task tool usage (absolute paths, no emojis, no colons before tool calls).
• Agent Prompt: Task tool (294 tks) - System prompt given to the subagent spawned via the Task tool.

Creation Assistants

• Agent Prompt: Agent creation architect (1110 tks) - System prompt for creating custom AI agents with detailed specifications.
• Agent Prompt: CLAUDE.md creation (384 tks) - System prompt for analyzing codebases and creating CLAUDE.md documentation files.
• Agent Prompt: Status line setup (1460 tks) - System prompt for the statusline-setup agent that configures status line display.

Slash commands

• Agent Prompt: /pr-comments slash command (402 tks) - System prompt for fetching and displaying GitHub PR comments.
• Agent Prompt: /review-pr slash command (243 tks) - System prompt for reviewing GitHub pull requests with code analysis.
• Agent Prompt: /security-review slash command (2610 tks) - Comprehensive security review prompt for analyzing code changes with focus on exploitable vulnerabilities.

Utilities

• Agent Prompt: Agent Hook (133 tks) - Prompt for an 'agent hook'.
• Agent Prompt: Bash command description writer (207 tks) - Instructions for generating clear, concise command descriptions in active voice for bash commands.
• Agent Prompt: Bash command file path extraction (286 tks) - System prompt for extracting file paths from bash command output.
• Agent Prompt: Bash command prefix detection (823 tks) - System prompt for detecting command prefixes and command injection.
• Agent Prompt: Claude guide agent (761 tks) - System prompt for the claude-guide agent that helps users understand and use Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK and the Claude API effectively..
• Agent Prompt: Command execution specialist (109 tks) - System prompt for command execution agent focusing on bash commands.
• Agent Prompt: Conversation summarization (1121 tks) - System prompt for creating detailed conversation summaries.
• Agent Prompt: Exit plan mode with swarm (440 tks) - System reminder for when ExitPlanMode is called with isSwarm set to true..
• Agent Prompt: Hook condition evaluator (78 tks) - System prompt for evaluating hook conditions in Claude Code.
• Agent Prompt: Prompt Suggestion Generator (Stated Intent) (166 tks) - Instructions for generating prompt suggestions based on user's explicitly stated next steps.
• Agent Prompt: Prompt Suggestion Generator v2 (296 tks) - V2 instructions for generating prompt suggestions for Claude Code.
• Agent Prompt: Remember skill (1048 tks) - System prompt for the /remember skill that reviews session memories and updates CLAUDE.local.md with recurring patterns and learnings.
• Agent Prompt: Session Search Assistant (439 tks) - Agent prompt for the session search assistant that finds relevant sessions based on user queries and metadata.
• Agent Prompt: Session notes template (292 tks) - Template structure for session notes tracking coding work and decisions.
• Agent Prompt: Session notes update instructions (756 tks) - Instructions for updating session notes files during conversations.
• Agent Prompt: Session title and branch generation (307 tks) - Agent for generating succinct session titles and git branch names.
• Agent Prompt: Update Magic Docs (718 tks) - Prompt for the magic-docs agent..
• Agent Prompt: User sentiment analysis (205 tks) - System prompt for analyzing user frustration and PR creation requests.
• Agent Prompt: WebFetch summarizer (185 tks) - Prompt for agent that summarizes verbose output from WebFetch for the main model.

System Prompt

Parts of the main system prompt.

• System Prompt: Main system prompt (269 tks) - Core identity and capabilities of Claude Code as an interactive CLI assistant.
• System Prompt: Accessing past sessions (329 tks) - Instructions for searching past session data including memory summaries and transcript logs.
• System Prompt: Chrome browser MCP tools (156 tks) - Instructions for loading Chrome browser MCP tools via MCPSearch before use.
• System Prompt: Claude in Chrome browser automation (759 tks) - Instructions for using Claude in Chrome browser automation tools effectively.
• System Prompt: Doing tasks (445 tks) - Instructions for performing software engineering tasks.
• System Prompt: Git status (95 tks) - System prompt for displaying the current git status at the start of the conversation.
• System Prompt: Hooks Configuration (1268 tks) - System prompt for hooks configuration. Used for above Claude Code config skill..
• System Prompt: Learning mode (insights) (142 tks) - Instructions for providing educational insights when learning mode is active.
• System Prompt: Learning mode (1042 tks) - Main system prompt for learning mode with human collaboration instructions.
• System Prompt: MCP CLI (1333 tks) - Instructions for using mcp-cli to interact with Model Context Protocol servers.
• System Prompt: Scratchpad directory (170 tks) - Instructions for using a dedicated scratchpad directory for temporary files.
• System Prompt: Task management (565 tks) - Instructions for using task management tools.
• System Prompt: Teammate Communication (138 tks) - System prompt for teammate communication in swarm.
• System Prompt: Tone and style (500 tks) - Guidelines for communication tone and response style.
• System Prompt: Tool Use Summary Generation (171 tks) - Prompt for generating summaries of tool usage.
• System Prompt: Tool execution denied (144 tks) - System prompt for when tool execution is denied.
• System Prompt: Tool usage policy (564 tks) - Policies and guidelines for tool usage.

System Reminders

All Claude Code system reminders.

• System Reminder: Agent mention (45 tks) - Notification that user wants to invoke an agent.
• System Reminder: Compact file reference (57 tks) - Reference to file read before conversation summarization.
• System Reminder: Delegate mode prompt (185 tks) - System reminder for delegate mode.
• System Reminder: Exited delegate mode (50 tks) - Notification when exiting delegate mode in swarm.
• System Reminder: Exited plan mode (73 tks) - Notification when exiting plan mode.
• System Reminder: File exists but empty (27 tks) - Warning when reading an empty file.
• System Reminder: File modified by user or linter (97 tks) - Notification that a file was modified externally.
• System Reminder: File opened in IDE (37 tks) - Notification that user opened a file in IDE.
• System Reminder: File shorter than offset (59 tks) - Warning when file read offset exceeds file length.
• System Reminder: File truncated (74 tks) - Notification that file was truncated due to size.
• System Reminder: Hook additional context (35 tks) - Additional context from a hook.
• System Reminder: Hook blocking error (52 tks) - Error from a blocking hook command.
• System Reminder: Hook stopped continuation (30 tks) - Message when a hook stops continuation.
• System Reminder: Hook success (29 tks) - Success message from a hook.
• System Reminder: Invoked skills (33 tks) - List of skills invoked in this session.
• System Reminder: Lines selected in IDE (66 tks) - Notification about lines selected by user in IDE.
• System Reminder: MCP resource no content (41 tks) - Shown when MCP resource has no content.
• System Reminder: MCP resource no displayable content (43 tks) - Shown when MCP resource has no displayable content.
• System Reminder: Malware analysis after Read tool call (87 tks) - Instructions for analyzing malware without improving or augmenting it.
• System Reminder: Memory file contents (38 tks) - Contents of a memory file by path.
• System Reminder: Nested memory contents (33 tks) - Contents of a nested memory file.
• System Reminder: New diagnostics detected (35 tks) - Notification about new diagnostic issues.
• System Reminder: Output style active (32 tks) - Notification that an output style is active.
• System Reminder: Output token limit exceeded (35 tks) - Warning when response exceeds output token limit.
• System Reminder: Plan file reference (62 tks) - Reference to an existing plan file.
• System Reminder: Plan mode is active (5-phase) (1348 tks) - Enhanced plan mode system reminder with parallel exploration and multi-agent planning.
• System Reminder: Plan mode is active (iterative) (858 tks) - Iterative plan mode system reminder for main agent with user interviewing workflow.
• System Reminder: Plan mode is active (subagent) (310 tks) - Simplified plan mode system reminder for sub agents.
• System Reminder: Plan mode re-entry (236 tks) - System reminder sent when the user enters Plan mode after having previously exited it either via shift+tab or by approving Claude's plan..
• System Reminder: Session continuation (37 tks) - Notification that session continues from another machine.
• System Reminder: Task status (18 tks) - Task status with TaskOutput tool reference.
• System Reminder: Task tools reminder (123 tks) - Reminder to use task tracking tools.
• System Reminder: Team Coordination (247 tks) - System reminder for team coordination.
• System Reminder: Team Shutdown (136 tks) - System reminder for team shutdown.
• System Reminder: Todo list changed (61 tks) - Notification that todo list has changed.
• System Reminder: Todo list empty (83 tks) - Reminder that todo list is empty.
• System Reminder: TodoWrite reminder (98 tks) - Reminder to use TodoWrite tool for task tracking.
• System Reminder: Token usage (39 tks) - Current token usage statistics.
• System Reminder: USD budget (42 tks) - Current USD budget statistics.
• System Reminder: Verify plan reminder (47 tks) - Reminder to verify completed plan.

Builtin Tool Descriptions

• Tool Description: AskUserQuestion (194 tks) - Tool description for asking user questions..
• Tool Description: Bash (1067 tks) - Description for the Bash tool, which allows Claude to run shell commands.
• Tool Description: Computer (161 tks) - Main description for the Chrome browser computer automation tool.
• Tool Description: Edit (246 tks) - Tool for performing exact string replacements in files.
• Tool Description: EnterPlanMode (970 tks) - Tool description for entering plan mode to explore and design implementation approaches.
• Tool Description: ExitPlanMode (417 tks) - Description for the ExitPlanMode tool, which presents a plan dialog for the user to approve.
• Tool Description: Glob (122 tks) - Tool description for file pattern matching and searching by name.
• Tool Description: Grep (300 tks) - Tool description for content search using ripgrep.
• Tool Description: LSP (255 tks) - Description for the LSP tool..
• Tool Description: NotebookEdit (121 tks) - Tool description for editing Jupyter notebook cells.
• Tool Description: ReadFile (439 tks) - Tool description for reading files.
• Tool Description: SendMessageTool (1234 tks) - Tool for sending messages to teammates and handling protocol requests/responses in a swarm.
• Tool Description: Skill (442 tks) - Tool description for executing skills in the main conversation.
• Tool Description: TaskCreate (558 tks) - Tool description for TaskCreate tool.
• Tool Description: Task (1311 tks) - Tool description for launching specialized sub-agents to handle complex tasks.
• Tool Description: TeammateTool operation parameter (72 tks) - Description of the operation parameter for the TeammateTool.
• Tool Description: TeammateTool (2250 tks) - Tool for managing teams and coordinating teammates in a swarm.
• Tool Description: TodoWrite (2167 tks) - Tool description for creating and managing task lists.
• Tool Description: ToolSearch (792 tks) - Tool description for loading and searching deferred tools before use.
• Tool Description: WebFetch (297 tks) - Tool description for web fetch functionality.
• Tool Description: WebSearch (329 tks) - Tool description for web search functionality.
• Tool Description: Write (127 tks) - Tool for writing files to the local filesystem.

Additional notes for some Tool Desscriptions

• Tool Description: Bash (Git commit and PR creation instructions) (1589 tks) - Instructions for creating git commits and GitHub pull requests.
• Tool Description: Bash (sandbox note) (454 tks) - Note about bash command sandboxing.
• Tool Description: EnterPlanMode (ambiguous tasks) (735 tks) - Tool for entering plan mode when task has ambiguity.