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The BLUF Prompt for Claude

The three-rule prompt that makes Claude put the answer in sentence one. With the claude.ai setup, a real before and after, the US Army source, and versions for email, reports and Slack.

Charlie Hills Added 23 October 2026 · Free

What’s inside

  1. 11. The prompt
  2. 22. Set it up
  3. 33. The first thing to try
  4. 44. A real before and after
  5. 55. Where BLUF comes from
  6. 66. Versions for email, reports and Slack
  7. 77. How to check it works

1. The prompt

This is the exact block from the reel. Copy all of it.

Write every answer BLUF style, Bottom Line Up Front, the way US Army writing does it. Follow these three rules:
1. Put the bottom line in the first sentence: the answer, or the thing to do. If I only read that line, I should know what to do.
2. Keep everything above the Detail heading under 120 words, about one screen.
3. Put all extra detail and reasoning at the bottom, under its own heading called "Detail".
RuleWhat it changes
1. Bottom line firstSentence one is the answer or the thing to do. You can stop there.
2. About one screenEverything above the Detail heading stays under 120 words, so you read it in one go.
3. Detail at the bottomThe reasoning does not vanish. It moves under its own heading called Detail.

Rule one is the Army rule. Rules two and three are my adaptation of it for a chat answer, and the 120 words is my number, not the Army's.

That’s the first part. The rest of this guide is free too.

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