| name | refine |
| description | Transform a brief or prompt into a structured, production-ready prompt via prompt-optimizer. File or text mode. |
refine — Prompt Optimizer
Runtime syntax: invoke the plugin copy through the active runtime's owner-qualified skill selector; use a bare selector only when intentionally selecting a user-tier copy (a separately installed personal copy; Genie no longer seeds this tier). Cross-skill prose below uses bare names as portable semantic routes; the orchestrator resolves the selector for the active runtime.
Transform any brief, draft, or one-liner into a production-ready structured prompt.
When to Use
- User wants to improve a prompt or brief
- User references
refine with text or a file path
- A worker needs to optimize a prompt before dispatching it
Flow
- Detect mode: argument starts with
@ → file mode; otherwise → text mode.
- Read input: file mode reads the target file; text mode uses the raw argument.
- Load the optimizer prompt: at dispatch time, Read
prompts/optimizer.md (relative to this skill's directory — skills/refine/prompts/optimizer.md). Its full contents are the refiner's system prompt.
- Dispatch refiner subagent: system prompt = the full text of
prompts/optimizer.md; user message = the input. Single turn.
- Write output: file mode overwrites the source file in place; text mode writes to
/tmp/prompts/<slug>.md.
- Report: lead with the path of the written file — that is the deliverable.
Modes
| File mode | Text mode |
|---|
| Invocation | refine @path/to/file.md | refine <text> |
| Input | file contents (strip @ prefix) | the raw argument |
| Output | overwrite the same file | /tmp/prompts/<slug>.md (mkdir -p /tmp/prompts/ first) |
| Report | the updated file path | the created file path |
Slug: <unix-timestamp>-<word1>-<word2>-<word3> — first 3 words, lowercased, hyphenated. Example: 1708190400-fix-auth-bug.
Subagent Contract
The refiner is a single-turn subagent: input in, optimized prompt out.
- System prompt: the full contents of
prompts/optimizer.md — passed whole, never summarized.
- Input: the raw text or file contents as the user message.
- Output: optimized prompt body only — no labels, meta-commentary, rationale, or follow-up questions.
- No tool calls. Receive input, produce output, terminate.
Rules
- Preserve the original intent — the simplest rewrite that satisfies the input, no added features or scope.
- Never execute the prompt — only rewrite it.
- Never enter a clarification loop — act on what you have, single turn.
- Never add wrapper text or status messages to the output file.
- File mode overwrites in place; text mode writes only to
/tmp/prompts/.
