Core Concepts

Before diving into the tools, it helps to understand the key concepts that make Promptodex work.

Prompts

A prompt is a text template stored on Promptodex. Every prompt has:

• A slug — a unique identifier like summarize or tweet-thread
• Content — the actual prompt text, optionally with variables
• Versions — a history of revisions
• Visibility — public or private

Example prompt content:

Summarize the following article about {{topic}} in {{language:english}}:

{{content}}

Variables

Variables make prompts dynamic and reusable. They use double curly brace syntax:

{{variableName}}

You can set default values with a colon:

{{language:english}}

When a prompt is rendered, variables are replaced with the values you provide. Missing variables without defaults become empty strings.

Learn more in Writing Prompts → Variables.

Versions

Every time a prompt is edited, a new version is created. Versions are numbered sequentially (1, 2, 3, ...).

• Latest — by default, you always get the latest version
• Pinned — use @version syntax to lock to a specific version: summarize@2

This means you can iterate on prompts without breaking existing users.

Slugs

Prompts are identified by slugs — unique, URL-friendly names:

summarize
tweet-thread
translate

Slugs make prompts easy to reference from the CLI, SDK, or the web.

Public vs. Private Prompts

• Public prompts are visible to everyone. They can be forked, bookmarked, and used by anyone.
• Private prompts require an API key to access. Use them for proprietary or sensitive prompt content.

# Public — anyone can run this
pod summarize

# Private — requires authentication
pod my-private-prompt  # needs pod login or API key

Forking

Any public prompt can be forked — creating your own copy that you can modify independently. Attribution is automatic, and you can continue to pull in improvements from the original.

Model Recommendations

Prompt authors can recommend which AI model works best for their prompt (e.g., GPT-4.1, Claude Sonnet 4). The CLI respects these recommendations by default, but you can always override with --model.

The Registry

The Promptodex registry is the central hub where all prompts live. It's accessed by:

• The website for browsing and editing
• The CLI for running prompts from your terminal
• The SDK for loading prompts in code

Next Steps

• Quick Start — Install the tools and run your first prompt
• Writing Prompts — Learn the prompt syntax in detail