A quick walkthrough of every feature in the workbench — from writing your first prompt to running A/B tests across providers.
The main workspace. Write or paste a prompt, enhance it with AI, and save it to your library.
Type in the input area or paste from your clipboard. A word/character/token counter updates live in the top-right corner.
Use the dropdown to the left of the Enhance button. Options: Balanced, Claude (XML-optimized), ChatGPT (system/user cues), Image Gen, Code Gen, Concise, or Detailed.
Your active provider rewrites the prompt. The enhanced version appears below with a quality score (Role / Task / Format / Constraints / Context).
Click Show Diff to see word-level additions and removals. If the lint panel flags issues, use the Fix buttons for auto-correction.
Press ⌘S or click Save. Add a title, pick tags, assign a collection, and optionally write a change note describing what you adjusted.
The editor automatically scores your prompt on five dimensions:
Score color: green (4-5/5), yellow (2-3/5), red (0-1/5).
When you get an output you're happy with, click Pin Golden. This saves it as a benchmark. Future iterations will show a side-by-side comparison against your golden reference, so you can tell if quality is drifting.
Toggle between three editor layouts using the tabs below the header:
Your prompt archive. Search, tag, version, and organize everything you've saved.
Every time you save changes to an existing prompt, the previous version is preserved. Expand any entry to see its timeline:
At the bottom of the library panel:
.json fileprompt, description, category are auto-mapped)Compare two prompt variants side-by-side — same model or different models.
Click A/B Test in the top navigation bar (between Compose and Scratchpad).
Paste or type Variant A and Variant B in their respective text areas. These can be different phrasings, different system prompts, or entirely different approaches.
Both variants execute simultaneously against your active provider. Results appear side-by-side with token count estimates.
After reviewing the outputs, click Pick A or Pick B to record which variant performed better. This is saved to your experiment history.
The A/B Test tab keeps two collapsible sections:
Build complex prompts from modular blocks — drag, drop, and reorder pieces from your library.
On mobile, these collapse into Library | Canvas | Preview toggle tabs.
A freeform notepad for ideas, snippets, and working notes. Supports multiple named pads.
.txt fileContent saves automatically as you type. The status indicator in the bottom-right shows:
Write prompts once with placeholders, fill them differently each time you run.
Wrap any placeholder in double braces: {{role}}, {{language}}, {{context}}. When you enhance, Prompt Lab detects all {{ }} patterns and shows a form to fill in values before sending.
These built-in variables fill themselves at runtime — no input needed:
| Variable | Resolves to |
|---|---|
{{date}} | Current date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
{{time}} | Current time (HH:MM:SS) |
{{datetime}} | Combined ISO format |
{{timestamp}} | Milliseconds since epoch |
{{year}} | Current year |
{{clipboard}} | Contents of your system clipboard |
Review this {{language}} code for security issues: {{clipboard}} — the language variable prompts you, and the clipboard content is injected automatically.Configure providers and API keys. Click the gear icon in the header or press ⌘K and choose "Open Settings."
Select your active provider from the dropdown. Each provider has its own fields:
sk-ant-...), model (default: claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022)gpt-4o)gemini-2.0-flash)anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet)localhost:11434), model. Click Refresh Models to auto-detect loaded modelsClick Test Connection to validate your API key and model. A success or error message confirms the result. Keys are stored in localStorage and never leave your browser.
If Prompt Lab detects sensitive content in your prompt (API keys, passwords, tokens), it shows a warning with three options:
Press ? anywhere to see the full shortcut list, or ⌘K to open the command palette.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘⏎ | Enhance prompt |
| ⌘S | Save prompt |
| ⌘K | Open command palette |
| ? | Show keyboard shortcuts |
| Esc | Close modal / panel |
Scratchpad shortcuts are limited to local text actions. Browser-reserved shortcuts like ⌘T, ⌘W, ⌘[, and ⌘] are intentionally not overridden.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘E | Export / download pad |
| ⌘⇧D | Insert date separator |
| ⌘⇧C | Copy all content |
| ⌘⇧X | Clear pad |
Press ⌘K to open the palette. Type to filter, then select: