Real-Time Coaching

The Prism plugin scores every prompt in real time and provides coaching when quality is low.

How it works

When you type a prompt and press Enter:

1. The UserPromptSubmit hook fires before the prompt reaches Claude
2. The hook scores Prompt Quality (PQ) using local heuristics
3. Based on the score and your threshold setting:
   • Below threshold — shows a suggested rewrite with specific tips
   • 4.0–6.0 — shows light improvement suggestions
   • Above 6.0 — silent pass (no interruption)
4. The prompt is always submitted — coaching is advisory, never blocking

What you see

When PQ is below your threshold (default: 4.0):

Prism Advisor
  PQ Score: 2.5/10
  Specificity: 1.0  |  Decomposition: 4.0

  Issues:
  - No file paths — which file are you working on?
  - No function names — what specifically needs to change?

  Your prompt:
    "fix the authentication bug"

  Suggested rewrite:
    "Fix the authentication bug in src/auth/validate.ts — the
     validateToken() function throws when the JWT has expired.
     Should return { valid: false, reason: 'expired' } instead."

  Why this is better:
    Adds the file path, function name, error condition, and
    expected behavior — the AI can act immediately without guessing.

Skipped prompts

The advisor skips scoring for:

• Short prompts (<10 characters) — “yes”, “no”, “ok”
• Slash commands — /compact, /clear, /model sonnet
• Simple confirmations — “y”, “n”, “continue”, “go ahead”

These are navigational — scoring them would be noise.

Threshold tuning

The prismThreshold in your config controls sensitivity:

Threshold	Behavior
2	Only catches the worst prompts
4 (default)	Balanced — catches vague prompts, allows moderate ones
6	Strict — suggests improvements for most prompts
8	Very strict — only elite prompts pass silently

Edit in ~/.prism/config.json:

{
  "prismThreshold": 5
}

Context nudges

In addition to PQ scoring, the submit hook provides context management nudges:

Condition	Nudge
Turn count >80 or context grew >10x	Suggests /clear
Turn count >20 and context grew >3x	Suggests /compact
Every 15 turns	Periodic context check reminder

These help prevent context bloat from degrading response quality.