#Prompts

The Prompts tab is your personal prompt library — a place to save, organize, and reuse the prompts you find yourself typing over and over. Instead of copy-pasting from a text file or scrolling through old chats, you build a library once and access it instantly.

#Creating a Prompt

Click the + button in the header toolbar (or right-click empty space → context menu won't help here, just use the + button). A creation modal appears with three fields:

#Type

• System Prompt — Instructions meant for the AI's system context (e.g. "You are a code reviewer...")
• Normal Prompt — A user-facing prompt you send directly in the chat

The type affects the default icon and helps you filter later.

#Title & Icon

Give your prompt a short, memorable title — this is what you'll search for when using slash commands. Click the icon button to pick from a grid of icons for visual distinction.

#Content

The actual prompt text. This is where the magic happens — you can use plain text, or add variables and import references (see below).

#Variables

Variables turn a static prompt into a reusable template. When you use a prompt that contains variables, a fill-in form appears asking you to provide values.

#Text variables

Use {{variableName}} for free-text input:

Write a {{tone}} email to {{recipient}} about {{topic}}.

When used, you'll be prompted to fill in "tone", "recipient", and "topic" before the prompt is inserted.

#Dropdown variables

Use {{variableName:option1,option2,option3}} for a predefined set of choices:

Translate the following to {{language:English,Spanish,Japanese,French}}.

This renders as a dropdown select when the prompt is used — no typing, just pick.

#Prompt Composition (@import)

You can reference other prompts inside a prompt using the import syntax:

{{@import:General System Instructions}}

Now, specifically for this task:
Review the following code for security issues...

When this prompt is used, {{@import:General System Instructions}} is replaced with the full content of your prompt titled "General System Instructions".

Key details:

• Imports are resolved recursively (imported prompts can import other prompts)
• Circular references are detected and shown as [circular: Title]
• Missing references show as [not found: Title]

#Using Prompts

There are two ways to use a saved prompt:

#Click to copy

Click any prompt in the tree. Its content is resolved (imports inlined, then variable fill form if needed), and the final text is copied to your clipboard. Paste it wherever you need.

#Slash commands

Type / in the Gemini or AI Studio input field and your library appears inline:

Keep typing to filter, arrow keys to move, Enter to insert. Full details in Slash Commands.

#Save a prompt straight from a conversation

On Gemini, highlight any text in a conversation and the selection toolbar appears with Save as Prompt. It goes into your Prompts inbox immediately, so a good phrasing you improvised in a chat doesn't get lost.

#Organization

The Prompts tab uses the same folder tree as the Library tab, so all the patterns are familiar:

• Folders — Create nested folders to group prompts by project, topic, or workflow
• Drag and drop — Move prompts between folders
• Rename — Right-click → Rename (folder or prompt title)
• Favorites — Star prompts to pin them to the top (and filter by ⭐)
• Sorting — Toggle between alphabetical and date-based order

#Context menu actions (prompts)

Right-click a prompt for:

• Edit Prompt — Opens the edit form modal
• Copy Content — Copies resolved content (with variable fill if needed)
• Duplicate — Creates a copy in the same folder
• Add/Remove Favorites
• Rename — Inline rename
• Delete

#Filtering

The filter bar offers:

• Search — Filter by prompt title
• Type filter — Cycle through All / Normal / System
• Favorites only — Show only starred prompts

#Batch operations

Enter batch mode (☑ icon in header) to:

• Batch delete — Remove multiple prompts at once
• Batch move — Move multiple prompts to a target folder

#Importing AI Studio System Prompts

On AI Studio, you can bulk-import your saved system instructions into the prompt library:

Open the overflow menu (⋮) → Import AI Studio System Instructions

This reads the system instructions AI Studio has stored for you, creates an AI Studio System folder, and imports each one as a system prompt. One click to bring existing work into an organized library.

#Have the Agent Refactor Your Library

Once a prompt library grows past 30 or 40 entries it starts to rot — near-duplicates, prompts you can't find via /, the same "role + output format" preamble copy-pasted into a dozen places.

The agent has a built-in skill for exactly this. Type > in the chat input, pick Better Sidebar, and ask something like:

Clean up my prompt library: rename the ones that are hard to find via / by putting the keyword at the start. Extract the repeated "role + output format" block into a shared prompt and import it into the others. If a variable only has a few fixed options, turn it into a dropdown.

It reads your actual prompts, proposes a plan, and asks before changing anything. Changes can be undone afterwards.

#Practical Patterns

A few library layouts that hold up over time:

One folder per output shape. Email/, Code Review/, Summarize/. You reach for prompts by what you want out, not by what project you're in.

A _base folder for shared blocks. Put your standard role instruction, your standard output format, and your standard tone rules in there as separate prompts. Every real prompt imports the ones it needs. Change the tone rule once and all of them update.

Dropdowns for anything with fewer than six options. Tone, language, output length, seniority level. Typing professional for the four-hundredth time is a waste of a keystroke.

Keyword-first titles. translate-jp beats Japanese translation helper because /tr finds it instantly.