black-book

Black Book

A Claude Code plugin: 86 role-built business specialists, the 9 prompt-engineering frameworks they're built on, and a generator that produces tailored prompts on demand.

A clean-room reimplementation of the "Black Book" concept — built independently from the public feature list, sharing none of its code or copy.

Landing page: https://lswank.github.io/black-book/
Quickstart: QUICKSTART.md — first 5 minutes
Examples: EXAMPLES.md — worked walkthroughs of common chains
FAQ: FAQ.md — common questions
L-E-D guide: docs/L-E-D.md — why the calibration framework has no specialist
Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md

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Install

Claude Desktop — one-click bundle (easiest)

1. Download black-book.mcpb (~2.6 KB)
2. Double-click the file
3. Claude Desktop opens with an install prompt — click Install
4. Done

The bundle proxies stdio MCP traffic to the hosted endpoint. Free tier rate limit: 30 requests per IP per hour. Self-host (below) for unlimited use.

Claude Desktop — one-line terminal install

For developers who'd rather use a script. Patches claude_desktop_config.json in place, preserving any existing entries:

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://black-book-host.vercel.app/install | bash

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://black-book-host.vercel.app/install.ps1 | iex

Restart Claude Desktop after either.

Claude Desktop — manual JSON

Paste this into claude_desktop_config.json (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "black-book": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://black-book-host.vercel.app/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. The black-book tools (list_specialists, find_specialist, get_specialist, prompt_bank, flow, …) are now available.

Claude Desktop — self-hosted

Run the MCP server locally — unlimited use, fully private:

git clone https://github.com/lswank/black-book ~/code/black-book
cd ~/code/black-book/mcp && npm install

Then in claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "black-book": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/code/black-book/mcp/server.mjs"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. See mcp/README.md for full details.

Claude Code

For the full experience — subagents, skills, slash commands, /flow, /prompt-bank, /list, /find, /doctor:

/plugin install https://github.com/lswank/black-book

Or clone into your Claude Code plugin directory:

git clone https://github.com/lswank/black-book ~/.claude/plugins/black-book

Cursor, Codex, anything else that speaks MCP

Either the hosted endpoint or the self-host pattern works — Black Book is a generic stdio / streamable HTTP MCP server. Point your client at https://black-book-host.vercel.app/mcp (HTTP) or node /path/to/black-book/mcp/server.mjs (stdio).

What's in the box

9 prompt-engineering frameworks

Each framework is a slash command. Pipe in a free-form description; get back a well-structured prompt.

Command	Framework	Best for
/tag	Task, Action, Goal	Quick ad-hoc requests
/bab	Before, After, Bridge	Cold outreach, problem/solution copy
/rtf	Role, Task, Format	Short structured outputs
/care	Context, Action, Result, Example	Grounded, context-heavy work
/rise	Role, Input, Steps, Expectation	Multi-step long outputs
/aim	Action, Intent, Metric	Strategy, goal-setting
/gro	Goal, Reason, Output	Lightweight planning, briefs
/fit	Format, Input, Task	Transforms, restructuring
/led	Level, Expectation, Direction	Calibrating tone and complexity

Each framework asks for missing inputs and emits a copy-pastable, fenced prompt.

/prompt-bank — prompts on demand

Static prompt libraries are a 2023 artifact. Instead, /prompt-bank <task> does this: