If you spend any time on social media like TikTok, Reddit, LinkedIn, or YouTube, you’ve seen people sharing AI prompts that promise to change your life. And honestly? Some of them probably would. But here’s what I’ve noticed: most of these prompts are long. Really long. Pages of detailed instructions with specific roles, constraints, and formatting requirements. And if you’re like most people, you probably skim them, think “this looks useful,” and paste them straight into ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, or Claude without reading the fine print.
The problem is that you might be setting yourself up for some unexpected results. A prompt might ask for personal information you’re not comfortable sharing. It might produce outputs that don’t match your needs at all. Or it might just be poorly written and waste your time. You wouldn’t sign a contract without reading it first, but we do basically that with AI prompts all the time.
I’ve been experimenting with AI tools pretty heavily, and I’m definitely not an expert, but I know enough to be dangerous. One thing I’ve learned is that taking a minute to understand what a prompt actually does before using it saves a lot of headaches later. So I came up with two approaches to analyze any AI prompt you find in the wild: a quick one-liner that gives you the basics in 30 seconds, and a more detailed analyzer for when you need to dig deeper (I’ll include the full prompt analyzer below so you can use it yourself). To test both methods, I grabbed a complex prompt called “The Resume Destroyer” from Reddit and put them head-to-head. Here’s what I learned and how you can do the same thing with any prompt you encounter.
In this article
- Free prompt analyzer you can copy and use today
- Why analyzing AI prompts matters before you paste them into ChatGPT or Claude
- Two methods for understanding what any prompt actually does (simple vs. advanced)
- Real-world test: I analyzed a popular “Resume Destroyer” prompt from Reddit
Table of Contents
Why Understanding Prompts Matters
Here’s the reality: if you put garbage into an AI, you’re going to get garbage out. That’s true whether you’re writing your own prompts or using ones you find online. But there’s another layer to this that people don’t always think about: when you use someone else’s prompt, you’re essentially running their instructions on your data. And you might not fully understand what those instructions are actually telling the AI to do.
I approach this the same way I approach any tech product I review on HighTechDad. I’m a teacher at heart, and I like to test things thoroughly before recommending them to anyone else. That means not just seeing if something works, but understanding how it works and whether it will actually help the person using it. With AI prompts, that means asking questions like:
- What information is this requesting?
- Will the output match my style and needs?
- Are there any privacy concerns I should know about?
- Can I customize this to work better for my specific situation?
The thing is, most prompts floating around social media don’t come with answers to those questions. They just say, “Try this, it’s amazing.” And maybe it is amazing for the person who created it. But without understanding what’s under the hood, you’re basically crossing your fingers and hoping it works for you, too.
Two Ways to Analyze AI Prompts
I’ve been experimenting with AI tools long enough to realize that not every situation needs the same level of scrutiny. Sometimes you just want to know what a prompt does before deciding if it’s worth your time. Other times, you’re about to use a prompt for something important, and you need to understand the details: privacy implications, customization options, potential risks, and whether it’s actually well-constructed.
That’s why I use two different approaches depending on the situation. The first is a quick one-liner that gives you the basics in under a minute. The second is a comprehensive analyzer I developed that breaks down everything you need to know before committing to use a prompt. Let me show you both.
Method 1: The Quick Check
This is the approach I used for years before I built anything more sophisticated. It’s simple: you ask your AI tool, “Tell me what this prompt does,” and then provide the prompt you want to analyze.
That’s it. One question. The AI will give you a plain-English explanation of what the prompt is designed to accomplish, who it’s for, and how it works.
Here’s the exact prompt to use (but feel free to tweak it):
Tell me what this prompt doesJust paste that question into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or whatever AI tool you prefer, then paste the prompt you want to analyze as a follow-up message.
When to use the quick check: This method works great when you need a fast overview. Maybe you’re scrolling through social media, and someone shares a prompt that looks interesting. You want to know if it’s worth reading the whole thing, but you don’t need a deep dive. The quick check gives you enough information to decide whether to move forward or keep scrolling.
It’s also useful for casual, low-stakes prompts where you’re not dealing with sensitive information or making important decisions based on the output.
Method 2: The Comprehensive Analyzer
The simple one-liner works fine for quick checks, but I found myself wanting more detailed information when I was about to use a prompt for anything important. I wanted to know:
- Does this prompt ask for personal information?
- What are the potential risks?
- Can I customize it for my specific needs?
- Is it actually well-designed, or just long and impressive-looking?
So I developed a more comprehensive prompt analyzer that gives you a structured breakdown of everything you need to know. Instead of just getting a summary, you get a full analysis that covers the prompt’s purpose, potential concerns, customization opportunities, strengths and weaknesses, and an overall assessment.
Here’s my full Prompt Analyzer v2.0:
You are an AI Prompt Analyzer that helps people understand and evaluate prompts they receive from any source. Your analysis should be clear, practical, and focused on empowering the user to make informed decisions.
When analyzing a prompt, provide a comprehensive evaluation using this structure:
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CORE PURPOSE
In 2-3 sentences, explain what this prompt is fundamentally designed to accomplish. Use plain language that anyone can understand, avoiding technical terminology unless absolutely necessary.
INTENDED AUDIENCE & USE CASES
- Who is this prompt designed for? (role, skill level, industry)
- What specific problems or tasks does it address?
- When would someone want to use this versus alternatives?
EXPECTED OUTPUT
Describe what the user will receive when using this prompt:
- Format (essay, list, code, structured data, etc.)
- Approximate length or scope
- Tone and style characteristics
- Any specific structural elements
FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS
Break down how this prompt works:
- What instructions or constraints does it contain?
- Does it assign a role or persona to the AI?
- Are there examples, templates, or formatting requirements?
- Does it use any advanced techniques? (Explain them simply)
USER CONSIDERATIONS
Alert the user to important factors:
Information Requests:
- What inputs or information will you need to provide?
- Does it ask for any personal, sensitive, or proprietary data?
Quality & Accuracy:
- Will outputs require fact-checking or expert review?
- Are there areas where the AI might hallucinate or speculate?
- Does it make claims that need verification?
Practical Concerns:
- Could this produce very long outputs that hit token limits?
- Is specialized knowledge needed to use the results effectively?
- Are there better tools or approaches for this task?
Tone & Alignment:
- Will the output style match your needs (professional, casual, technical)?
- Does it reflect any particular perspective or bias?
CUSTOMIZATION OPPORTUNITIES
Provide 4-6 specific, actionable modifications the user could make to personalize this prompt:
For each suggestion:
1. Explain WHY they might want this change
2. Provide the EXACT text to add/modify
3. Describe the EFFECT it will have
Example format:
To make outputs more concise: Add "Limit your response to 300 words maximum." This prevents overly long responses that may lose focus.
STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
What this prompt does well:
- [Specific strength with explanation]
Potential limitations:
- [Specific weakness with explanation]
Missing elements that could improve it:
- [Suggestions for enhancement]
BOTTOM LINE ASSESSMENT
Provide an honest, practical verdict:
- Is this prompt well-constructed and clear?
- Would you recommend using it as-is, or should it be modified first?
- What's the one most important thing to know before using it?
- Overall rating: Excellent / Good / Needs Work / Problematic
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ANALYSIS PRINCIPLES:
- Assume the user has basic AI familiarity but isn't a prompt engineer
- Be honest about limitations—don't oversell or undersell
- Focus on practical implications, not theoretical capabilities
- If something is unclear or ambiguous in the prompt, note it
- Tailor your language to be helpful and educational, not condescending
- When in doubt, err on the side of more explanation rather than lessWhen to use the comprehensive analyzer: Use this when you’re considering a prompt for important work, when it might involve personal or sensitive information, when you want to customize it for your specific needs, or when you just want to understand what makes a prompt well-designed versus poorly designed. It takes a couple of minutes to read through the results, but you’ll have a complete picture of what you’re working with.
Testing Both Methods on a Random Detailed Prompt
To show you the difference between these two approaches, I needed a real-world example. I searched Reddit for a detailed, complex prompt that people might actually encounter and consider using. I found one in the ChatGPT Prompt Genius subreddit called “The Resume Destroyer” that seemed like a perfect test case.
The Resume Destroyer is designed to turn an AI into a brutally honest resume reviewer. It’s several paragraphs of instructions that tell the AI to adopt a “merciless hiring manager” persona, tear apart your resume with harsh criticism, then rebuild it using better language and structure. The kind of thing that sounds genuinely useful if you’re job hunting and want real feedback, but also the kind of thing you’d want to understand thoroughly before handing over your personal information.
Here’s what I learned when I ran it through both analysis methods.
Results from the Quick Check
When I asked, “Tell me what this prompt does,” and pasted in the Resume Destroyer prompt, here’s what I got back:
This is a System Prompt (or “Persona Prompt”) designed to configure an AI into a specific, highly stylized character for a specific task. Instead of a generic, helpful assistant, this prompt forces the AI to become “The Resume Destroyer”—a hyper-critical, ruthless hiring manager.
The Character: A veteran hiring manager with 20+ years of experience who is cynical about “fluff” and “mediocrity.”
The Tone: The AI is explicitly forbidden from being nice, diplomatic, or using “HR-speak.” It must be harsh, direct, and authoritative.
The Workflow: The prompt forces the AI to follow a rigid three-step structure:
- Phase 1: The “Brutal Teardown,” where it actively looks for clichés, weak verbs, and problems, assigning a “BS Factor” score
- Phase 2: The “Strategic Rebuild”, where it rewrites sections using the PAR Method (Problem-Action-Result)
- Phase 3: The “Competitive Reality Check” which assesses if you’re actually qualified for the jobs you want
Why use this: This is designed to bypass the default “helpful/polite” filter of most AI models. It’s for job seekers who want objective, high-level criticism rather than false encouragement.
How to use it: Paste this into your AI tool, and it will ask you to upload your resume and a job description link.
That’s useful information. In about 30 seconds, I understood what the prompt does, who it’s for, and how to use it. If I just wanted a quick overview, this would be enough.
Results from Prompt Analyzer v2.0
But when I ran the same prompt through my comprehensive analyzer, I got a lot more detail. Here are the highlights (I’m summarizing the full output, but you get the complete breakdown when you use the analyzer yourself):
Privacy Warning: The analyzer specifically noted that resumes contain personally identifiable information, such as addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. It recommended removing these before pasting your resume into the chat. The quick check didn’t mention this at all.
Quality Concerns: The analyzer pointed out that while the AI understands general ATS (Applicant Tracking System) principles, it can’t actually scan your resume as real ATS software does. It warned that some technical formatting advice might be outdated or too rigid. It also noted that the “BS Factor” score is subjective, not a scientific metric.
Emotional Impact: The analyzer explicitly warned that this prompt is designed to be mean, and might describe your accomplishments as “delusional” or “weak.” It suggested making sure you’re mentally prepared for that kind of feedback, noting that it’s roleplay, not a personal attack.
Customization Options: Here’s where the comprehensive analyzer really shone. It gave me four specific ways to modify the prompt:
- How to soften the tone if you want constructive feedback without the insults (with exact text to change)
- How to tailor it for specific industries like tech or healthcare
- How to skip the critique section and go straight to the rewrite
- How to optimize it for a specific job description
Overall Assessment: The analyzer rated the prompt as “Excellent” for its specific purpose, noting it’s well-constructed and uses strong persona constraints to achieve a difficult result (getting an AI to be critical). But it also recommended using it with caution and treating the feedback as one perspective, not the absolute truth.
Simple vs. Advanced: Which Should You Use?
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of what you get from each method:
| Simple One-Liner | Prompt Analyzer v2.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| What You Ask | “Tell me what this prompt does” | Use full structured analyzer prompt |
| What You Get | Quick summary of purpose and workflow | Comprehensive breakdown with warnings and recommendations |
| Time Investment | 30 seconds to read | 2-3 minutes to read |
| Best For | Getting the gist before deciding to use | Evaluating safety, customization, and fit before committing |
| When to Use | Quick checks, casual prompts, low-stakes uses | Important work tasks, personal data involved, unfamiliar sources |
The simple method is great for most situations. If you’re just browsing prompts on social media and want to know if something is worth your time, asking “Tell me what this prompt does” gives you enough information to make that call.
But when you’re dealing with prompts that involve personal information, important work projects, or complex instructions you want to customize, the comprehensive analyzer is worth the extra couple of minutes. It catches things the quick check misses, like privacy concerns, quality limitations, and specific ways to tailor the prompt to your needs.
How to Use the Prompt Analyzer
Using either method is straightforward:
Step 1: Copy the prompt you want to use (either the simple one-liner or the full analyzer from the sections above)
Step 2: Paste it into your preferred AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.), whatever you’re comfortable with
Step 3: Paste the prompt you want to analyze as your follow-up message
Step 4: Read through the analysis and decide whether you want to use the prompt as-is, modify it, or skip it entirely
That’s it. The whole process takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes, depending on which method you use.
Common Questions About Analyzing AI Prompts
-
Is it safe to use AI prompts from Reddit or social media?
Most prompts you find on social media are perfectly fine. They’re just instructions for how the AI should respond. The problem arises when a prompt asks you to share personal information, such as your resume, financial details, or anything else you wouldn’t want floating around the internet. Before you use any prompt that wants personal data, take a minute to analyze it so you understand exactly what it’s asking for and why. And keep in mind that anything you paste into an AI chat could be stored or used for training, so strip out sensitive details like phone numbers, addresses, or account numbers first.
-
What information should I remove before sharing with AI?
If you’re using a prompt that needs to process your personal documents (resume, cover letter, business plan, whatever), take out anything that could identify you. That means names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social security numbers, account numbers, and any other personally identifiable information. You can replace these with placeholders like [NAME] or [PHONE], and the AI will still help you with the content and structure.
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How do I know if an AI prompt is well-written?
Look for clear instructions and specific constraints. A good prompt tells the AI what role to play, what format to use for the output, and includes examples or boundaries to guide its behavior. If a prompt is just something vague like “help me write better,” you’ll probably get mediocre results. The more specific and structured a prompt is, the better it tends to work.
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Do I need to analyze every prompt I use?
Nope. If you’re asking something simple like “explain this to me” or “help me brainstorm,” you don’t need to analyze it first. Save the analysis for prompts that are long and complicated, ask for personal information, come from sources you don’t know, or that you plan to use repeatedly for important work. It’s like reading terms and conditions. You don’t read them for every app, but you probably should for anything involving money or sensitive data.
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Why would I use the advanced analyzer instead of just asking “what does this do”?
The simple question gives you a quick summary. The advanced analyzer gives you the full picture: privacy concerns, quality issues, customization options, and an honest assessment of whether the prompt is actually well designed. Use the simple version when you just need the basics. Use the advanced version when you’re dealing with something important and want to know what you’re really getting into before you commit time to using it.
Final Thoughts…For Now
I’ve spent years writing how-to guides and troubleshooting articles for HighTechDad, and one thing I’ve learned is that understanding how something works before you dive in makes everything easier. Whether it’s figuring out a new piece of software, fixing a tech problem, or, in this case, using AI prompts, a little upfront knowledge saves you a lot of trial and error later.
The two methods I’ve shared here give you options depending on what you need. Most of the time, asking “tell me what this prompt does” is probably enough. You get a quick overview, decide if it’s relevant, and move on with your day. But when you’re dealing with something that involves personal information, important work, or a prompt you plan to use repeatedly, spending a couple of extra minutes with the comprehensive analyzer can save you from headaches down the road.
I’ll be sharing more useful prompts I’ve created (and some good ones I’ve found and tweaked) right here in this Prompt Library section. I’m also covering these topics (and others) in short videos on YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, if you want quick tips, you can watch in under a minute. If you have suggestions for prompts you’d like to see or types of AI tools you’re curious about, drop a comment. I’m always looking for new ideas to test and share.
HTD says: Understanding what an AI prompt actually does before you use it is like reading the instructions before assembling furniture. Sure, you can skip it and hope for the best, but you’ll probably save yourself some frustration if you take the two minutes upfront.
