System Prompts Reference

Squid uses specialized system prompts stored in src/assets/ to guide the LLM's behavior for different commands.

Prompt Architecture

Squid uses modular prompt composition:

[persona.md] + [task-specific prompt] = Complete System Prompt

• persona.md — Shared AI assistant personality (professional, direct, honest)
• Task-specific — ask-prompt.md, code-review.md, review-*.md

The persona is automatically prepended to all task-specific prompts at runtime.

Available Prompts

Ask Command (ask-prompt.md)

Default for squid ask. Guides the LLM to proactively use tools (read files, search code, run safe commands) when helpful.

squid ask "What is Rust?"                        # Uses ask-prompt.md
squid ask -p custom-prompt.md "question"         # Override with custom prompt
squid ask -f main.rs -p expert.md "Review this"  # Custom + file context

Code Review Prompts

The review command automatically selects the appropriate prompt based on file extension:

File Types	Prompt File	Focus
.rs	review-rust.md	Ownership, memory safety, idioms
.ts, .js, .tsx, .jsx	review-typescript.md	Type safety, async patterns, XSS
.html, .htm	review-html.md	Semantics, accessibility, SEO
.css, .scss, .sass	review-css.md	Performance, responsive, maintainability
.py	review-py.md	Python best practices
.go	review-go.md	Go idioms, concurrency
.java	review-java.md	Java patterns, null safety
.sql	review-sql.md	Query optimization, injection
.sh	review-sh.md	Shell scripting, safety
.json	review-json.md	Schema, structure
.yaml, .yml	review-yaml.md	Syntax, structure
.md	review-md.md	Markdown style, links
Dockerfile, *.dockerfile	review-docker.md	Container best practices
Makefile	review-makefile.md	Build patterns
Other	code-review.md	Generic code quality

squid review src/main.rs          # Auto-selects review-rust.md
squid review App.tsx              # Auto-selects review-typescript.md
squid review index.html           # Auto-selects review-html.md

Custom Prompts

Use the -p/--prompt flag with squid ask to override the default system prompt:

# Create a custom prompt
cat > security-expert.md << 'EOF'
You are a security expert. Focus on vulnerabilities and best practices.
EOF

# Use it
squid ask -p security-expert.md "Review this auth code"
squid ask -f auth.rs -p security-expert.md "Find security issues"

To permanently modify built-in prompts, edit the files in src/assets/ and rebuild (cargo build --release).

Viewing Prompts

ls src/assets/*.md          # List all prompts
cat src/assets/persona.md   # View base persona