Claude slash commands that make you 3× faster

The fastest Claude users aren't smarter. They just stopped typing the same things twice.

Built-in shortcuts

These work in Claude.ai right now:

/clear — start a fresh context without opening a new tab
/summarise (or just ask) — Claude will summarise the current conversation
Shift + Enter — new line without sending (essential for multi-paragraph prompts)
Up arrow — recall your last message to edit and resend

The pattern that saves the most time

Saved prompts as named templates. In Claude Projects, put your most-used prompt structures in the custom instructions as named templates:

TEMPLATE: EMAIL-REPLY
Role: senior comms lead. Tone: warm, direct.
Input: [paste email thread]
Output: draft reply, max 120 words, one clear ask.

Then in chat: "Use EMAIL-REPLY: [paste thread]"

Custom instruction shortcuts

Add abbreviations to your project instructions:

ELI5: — explain this like I'm 5
3B: — give me 3 bullet points only
TL;DR: — one sentence summary
BRUTAL: — give me honest feedback, no softening

Claude learns these per-project. No plugin needed.

The most underused feature

Continue — if Claude's response gets cut off, just say "continue" (not "go on" or "keep going"). Claude picks up exactly where it stopped.

Speed tip

Write your prompts with the output format first: "Give me a 3-bullet summary of: [topic]." You'll get better output faster than asking for the topic first then the format.