CASTLE ChatGPT Prompt Framework (+250 Free Prompts)

Be honest. How many times have you asked ChatGPT for help and gotten back the most boring, lifeless response ever? Like, it was written by a robot that works at the DMV. Yeah, same.

I used to spend over 10 minutes trying to craft what I thought was a decent prompt, only to get back advice that sounded like it came from a fortune cookie. But after years of testing, tweaking, and honestly obsessing over prompt engineering, I figured out a simple framework that was a complete game-changer.

This framework makes your prompts ridiculously effective. Not only am I going to break it down for you in this post, but I'll also show you how I built a custom GPT that writes these prompts for you following this exact framework. Plus, you'll get access to 250+ ready-to-use prompts that I use with my clients to scale real businesses using AI.

The CASTLE Framework: Your Prompt Engineering Blueprint

Here's the framework that's going to completely level up your prompting game. It spells out CASTLE and stands for:

Character
Action
Setting
Tone
Lore
Expression

But here's the part that most people miss: there's actually a hierarchy to it, and not all six components are equally important.

Action is the foundation – it's what tells ChatGPT what to actually do. Without it, nothing happens. Next comes Setting, which gives that action context to make it useful. All the rest are like the towers, the moat, the drawbridge, and the flags that make your castle feel legendary instead of generic.

The thing is, you don't always need all six components. Sometimes action and setting are more than enough. But when you want those mind-blowing results that make you go "Holy sh

Note: While I'll be mostly referring to ChatGPT in this post, this framework applies to any large language model – Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, you name it.

A = Action: The Foundation of Every Great Prompt

Action is the foundation of any good prompt. If there's only one thing you remember from this post, let it be this: be stupidly specific about what you want ChatGPT to do.

Most people type stuff like "Help me with marketing" and then wonder why ChatGPT hands them an absolute snoozefest that sounds like it came from a high school textbook. The problem? That's not an action – that's a vague cry for help.

Compare that to this: "Write a 150-word flash sale email for busy entrepreneurs who check email on their phones."

See the difference? The first one is like saying "Make me a sandwich," whereas the second one is like saying "Make me a salami reuben on sourdough with mustard and pickles."

The Action Formula

Here's the rule: Start with an action verb, then tell it exactly what kind of output you want:

Write
Generate
Analyze
Create
Summarize

If you can't clearly state what action you want the AI to take, you're probably not ready to prompt yet. Go figure that out and then come back.

Just fixing this one part will instantly 3x your ChatGPT results. And we're just getting started.

S = Setting: From Meh to Magnetic

Setting is what takes your prompt from meh to magnetic. If action is the "what," then setting is the "who, where, and why" behind it.

Here's the thing: ChatGPT is smart, but it's not a mind reader. If you don't give it context, it fills in the blanks with the most boring, generic assumptions possible.

Let me show you what I mean:

Basic prompt: "Write a social media post."

Same action with proper setting: "Write a social media post for my sales coaching business. My audience is overwhelmed entrepreneurs aged 30-45 who are most active on Instagram during their coffee breaks. They're constantly behind and feel guilty about it."

One gets you cookie-cutter fluff. The other speaks directly to your people.

What to Include in Setting

The essentials include:

Who are you?
Who's it for?
What's the situation?
Any key constraints?

Pro Tip: Create a Hero Scroll

Instead of filling out all this information every single time, I use something called a Hero Scroll in my AI Quest community. This is a living, breathing document that includes:

Your origin story
Mission statement
Personality type
What inspired your offer
Ideal client avatar details
All the context you need for consistent prompting

Instead of rewriting all that context every time you want to write a killer prompt, you can literally just upload this one document that already has all that information. When you provide all of that setting and context, you're going to have absolutely kick-ass results with your prompts and outputs.

L = Lore: Your AI Style Guide

Lore is where you give ChatGPT some reference material or examples so it knows exactly what vibe or structure you're going for.

Think of it like this: if you're getting your hair cut, you don't just say "Make me look good." You show the barber a photo. That's basically what lore does – it's like a style guide for your prompt.

Bad prompt: "Write me an engaging email that converts."

Same prompt with lore: "Write me an email like this one ]. It starts with a personal story, has short punchy paragraphs, has one call to action, and feels like I'm talking to a friend."

Boom. Way clearer. Now ChatGPT has a model to copy instead of just guessing.

Lore Examples

Your lore doesn't have to be perfect. It can be things like:

"Write in the style of a TED talk intro"
"Make it sound like a text from a sassy best friend"
"Channel the energy of a sports announcer on Red Bull"

Pro tip: Start saving great content when you see it – emails, social media posts, ads, anything. Build your own lore library. Then when it comes time to create prompts, you can drop a few examples in there and let ChatGPT pattern match like a pro.

C = Character: Casting Your Dream Consultant

Character is where we tell ChatGPT who it should pretend to be. By default, ChatGPT is like a super smart generalist, but when you give it a character to play, it instantly transforms into an expert with the exact experience you need.

Basic prompt: "Help me write course copy."

With character: "You're a direct response copywriter with 15 years of experience writing high-converting sales pages for course creators. You specialize in selling to skeptical entrepreneurs."

That second one? Whole different level.

The Character Trick

Be ultra-specific. Don't just say "you're a marketer." Say "you're a LinkedIn content strategist who's helped over 200 B2B service providers grow their audience by 300+ percent."

You can even stack characters: "You're a copywriter and a psychologist who writes ethical persuasion that hits emotional triggers without sounding manipulative."

You're basically casting your dream consultant for the job, and ChatGPT nails it every time.

E = Expression: Format for Success

Expression is all about how you want your output structured. Nothing kills momentum faster than getting back a giant wall of text when all you wanted was a simple list.

Vague request: "Give me social media content ideas."

With proper expression: "Give me 10 post ideas in a numbered list. For each one, include a headline, a short description, and a sample hook."

Way more usable, right?

Go-To Formats

Numbered lists
Bulleted lists
Step-by-step instructions
Tables
Scripts
Emails with subject, intro, body, and CTA

Basically, don't just ask for the "what" – tell it how to serve it up so it's ready to use.

T = Tone: The Secret Sauce

Tone is the vibe, the personality, the flavor. It's what makes your content sound like you and not like some generic AI bot stuck in corporate mode.

By default, ChatGPT writes like a polite intern who's read too many textbooks. It's technically correct but painfully boring.

Basic prompt: "Write a post about taking breaks."

Result: "Taking breaks is important for mental health and productivity." Snooze.

With tone: "Write it like a sarcastic best friend who's giving tough love to a workaholic."

Result: "Hey, overachiever, take a damn break. Your brain isn't a machine. And no, burnout doesn't count as a personality trait."

Much better.

Tone Examples

"Casual and funny, like texting a friend"
"Confident but not cocky"
"Excited, like a golden retriever who just found a tennis ball"

Bonus: You can also tell it what tones to avoid: "Keep it playful, but don't sound cringy or try-hard."

Tone is the secret sauce that makes people go, "Wait, there's no way this was written by AI."

CASTLE in Action: A Complete Example

Let's tie it all together so you can see the full CASTLE magic in action.

Most people write prompts like: "Help me with YouTube content." You'll get something, but it won't move the needle.

Now, let's build the full CASTLE:

Character: You're a YouTube strategist who's helped 500+ creators grow to over 100K subs, specializing in educational content that builds trust and drives conversions.

Action: Give me five video title ideas that hook viewers in the first 3 seconds and are optimized for high CTR in the AI tools niche.

Setting: I'm building a channel for solopreneurs who want to grow their business with automation. My current audience is mostly 25-40, scrappy, and values clarity over hype.

Tone: Smart and casual, like a cool friend who's obsessed with systems but still knows how to chill.

Lore: Titles should follow a proven structure: curiosity-driven, include a number or benefit, and feel like something you'd actually click. Think Ali Abdaal meets Alex Hormozi.

Expression: Format as a bulleted list with the title and a quick note on why it works.

We're not just asking for help – we're giving ChatGPT a creative brief that it can follow very specifically.

Meet Quorai: Your Prompt Genie

If you're thinking, "This CASTLE framework sounds awesome, but remembering all six parts sounds like a lot," I felt the same way. That's why I built Quorai, the Prompt Genie – a custom GPT that builds prompts following the CASTLE framework for you.

Here's how it works:

You tell Quorai what you need a prompt about
You provide your Hero Scroll (or basic context)
Quorai creates a complete CASTLE prompt for you
You can refine and adjust until it's perfect

For example, if you say "I need help writing a YouTube script," Quorai will ask clarifying questions and then build out the complete prompt with all CASTLE components based on your Hero Scroll and specific needs.

250+ Ready-to-Use Prompts

In addition to the framework and Quorai, I'm giving you access to my complete prompt database – over 250 different prompts spanning:

AI agents and GPTs
Audience growth
Automation systems
Brand identity
Business strategy
Client success
Copywriting
Data analysis
Hiring and team building
Mindset and clarity
And much more

Each prompt follows the CASTLE framework and is designed for real business results.

Your Next Steps

Hopefully by now you can see how just tweaking the way you write prompts completely changes the quality of your AI outputs. This is the stuff that turns your results from "meh" to "holy sh

You now have:

The complete CASTLE framework
Real examples of how to use each component
Access to Quorai the Prompt Genie
250+ proven prompts
The Hero Scroll system for consistent context

Everything I've mentioned – Quorai, the prompt database, the Hero Scroll builder, and so much more – is available inside the AI Quest community. As of this writing, it's completely free, but that might change as I keep building it out.

If you're even just a little bit curious, now's the best time to join and start transforming your AI results from generic to genius.

The difference between people who get amazing results with AI and those who don't isn't intelligence or luck – it's knowing how to communicate with these tools effectively. The CASTLE framework is your roadmap to that mastery.

Start with Action and Setting for immediate improvements, then layer in the other components as you get more comfortable. Before you know it, you'll be getting AI outputs that make people ask, "How did you get ChatGPT to write like that?"

And that's when you'll know you've mastered the art of prompt engineering.