How to prompt Claude 4.7 without overthinking it.
Three rules beat 90% of the prompt tricks you've read. They aren't magic. They're discipline.
Every Claude model release prompts a wave of "10 secret prompt tricks" threads. Most are theater. With 4.7, three things still move the needle far more than anything else, and they're all about how clearly you brief, not about magic incantations.
Rule 1: who you are and why you're asking
Tell Claude what you do and what you'll use the answer for. "I run a 3-chair dental clinic in Austin. I'm writing a Facebook ad for invisalign." That one sentence beats every "act as an expert copywriter" prompt you've ever seen. It tells the model the voice, the audience, the channel, and the stakes in 14 words.
The opposite, "write me a Facebook ad," gets you generic, because you gave Claude a generic problem.
Rule 2: paste the context
If you have the data, give it the data. Past ad copy that worked. Your three most recent five-star reviews. Your homepage hero text. Your offer terms. The result will be ten times more on-brand than if Claude had to guess.
Most owners don't paste context because pasting feels like work. Five seconds of pasting saves three rounds of "no, that's not right" iteration. Do the pasting.
Rule 3: ask for the shape
Tell Claude what you want back. "Three headline options plus a one-line rationale for each." "One ad with a primary body, three test variants, and the audiences each one targets." "A markdown table comparing three angles, with a recommendation at the bottom."
The right output shape saves three follow-up turns. Most owners ask Claude for "something," then ask three more times for it in a different format. Skip that loop. Specify the format first.
What 4.7 actually changed
4.7 is meaningfully better at sustained context and at sounding like a particular voice when you brief it well. It's also more cautious in good ways and a few annoying ones. The "more cautious" part means it occasionally refuses to do things that are obviously fine. The fix is the same as everywhere else: give it context. "I'm the marketing owner of this business and I need to write this ad" usually unlocks it.
The compounding effect
These three rules sound obvious. The owners who apply them in every conversation get dramatically better output within a week. The owners who don't will keep concluding that AI is overhyped.