Prompting
How Quack shapes prompts under the hood, and what that means for you.
Quack doesn't change how you prompt Claude Code or Codex — the skills you already have transfer directly. A few things are worth knowing about what Quack adds on top.
Presets shape the system prompt, not your message
Picking Milo, Nora, Vera, or a custom preset appends role and style instructions to the system prompt before your message ever reaches the model. You don't need to re-state "act as a reviewer" every time — pick Vera instead.
Custom instructions are treated as unverified
If you write custom instructions for your own preset, they're injected the same way any other preset's are, but treated with the same caution as other user-supplied text — don't expect a custom instruction to unlock behavior the underlying model wouldn't otherwise allow.
AskUserQuestion, always
Quack instructs agents to use the AskUserQuestion tool whenever they
genuinely need your input, rather than guessing — that's what powers the
clickable question cards you see instead of a wall of assumptions in the
response.
Brain-aware prompting
If you have Pinky Brain set up, Jack (and any agent) is instructed on when to search it and how to save a discovery back — see Second Brain.