Beyond the Prompt

The 15 Power Modes

A Power Mode is an instruction pattern, not a feature of the AI. Each page below says what the mode does, when it is the wrong answer, and gives you the wording to copy.

Grouped by what you are trying to do, because that is the question you actually arrive with. If you already know the name, the alphabetical list is at the foot.

Pressure-test something before you commit to it

You have a plan, a recommendation, or a proposal, and you want to know what is wrong with it while there is still time to change it.

REDTEAM Before / after Use it when you want a plan or argument attacked but cannot yet say where it is weak.
ASSUMPTION CHECK Before / after Use it when you already suspect the weakness is something the work takes for granted, and want those beliefs ranked by how much each would change the outcome.
PREMORTEM Before / after Use it when you fix a point in the future, declare it a failure, and ask what caused it.
COUNTEREVIDENCE Use it when you have a conclusion you believe and want the credible case against it, not a critique of how it is argued.
BUYER OBJECTION LENS Test Lab Before / after Use it when you need someone specific to agree, and want their reasons for refusing rather than a critique of what you are showing them.

Change how the problem is framed

The answer is not wrong so much as the question is. These modes move the frame rather than improving the response inside it.

FIRST PRINCIPLES Before / after Use it when you suspect the question itself assumes the current approach, and want the problem rebuilt from what is actually required.
SYSTEMS THINKING Before / after Use it when you see the same problem recurring across parts that are managed separately, and suspect the parts are interacting.
SECOND-ORDER THINKING Before / after Use it when you accept what a change does immediately and want to know what it causes after that.
IMPACT PRIORITIZATION Before / after Use it when you already have the list, and need to know which few items actually carry the outcome.
BACKCAST Test Lab Before / after Use it when you name a concrete success you want by a date, and ask what has to be true between now and then.

Fix how it reads

The analysis is fine. The delivery is not — too robotic, too long, too complex, or in the wrong voice for where it is going.

NATURAL VOICE Use it when you have writing that is accurate but reads as machine-made, and no sample to match it to.
ELI10 Use it when you have a reader who cannot follow the language, rather than one who cannot spare the time.
TIGHTEN Use it when you have content that is right, and simply too much of it.
VOICE MATCH Use it when you supply writing samples and ask new text to sound like them.
SOCRATIC MODE Before / after Use it when you ask to be questioned before being answered, because what you decide depends on things you have not said yet.

If you already know the name

Not sure which one you need?

Describe the work in your own words and the Builder picks the mode and writes the whole prompt.