Prompt Cleanup Checklist
A short, practical checklist for cleaning a prompt — what to remove, what to flag, and what to leave alone.
Overview
Cleaning a prompt is not about making it shorter for its own sake. It is about removing the parts that don't change the output — duplicate instructions, restated rules, empty sections, filler — while preserving every distinct instruction and surfacing any conflicts. This checklist gives you the order to work in, and the sample prompt below contains one of each problem so you can see the checklist applied end to end in the Prompt Cleaner.
Workflow
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Remove exact and near duplicates
Run Safe or Balanced. Duplicate and restated instructions are removed first — the lowest-risk cleanup.
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Collapse restated rules
Balanced mode merges instructions that mean the same thing (role, tone, length) down to one each.
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Flag and resolve contradictions
Open the report. For any conflict (short vs detailed), decide which you want and remove the other.
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Strip filler last
Switch to Aggressive only if you still want it tighter — it removes empty sections and filler words like 'please' and 'make sure to'.
Why This Works
- Working from lowest-risk to highest-risk removal means you never delete something load-bearing by accident
- Resolving contradictions before filler keeps your attention on the decisions that actually change output
- A repeatable checklist makes cleanup a habit rather than a one-time fix that drifts back to bloat
Best for
- Teams that want a standard cleanup step before reusing or sharing prompts
- Anyone who edits long prompts often and wants a repeatable process
- Prompt libraries where consistency and brevity matter
Not for
- One-off throwaway prompts you will not reuse
- Rewriting or restructuring — pair this with the Prompt Formatter if you also need structure
Use cases
- Running a consistent cleanup pass on every prompt before it goes into production
- Teaching a team a repeatable way to declutter shared prompts
- Auditing a prompt library for repetition, empty sections, and conflicts