How I use Amp
Harry Charlesworth
Last updated
Where do you talk to Amp most: terminal, editor, web, phone, Slack?
Web, mostly on my phone. A lot of my work in Amp is customer presentations, documents and the day-to-day work around Amp Labs. I’ll give it an existing deck or some rough notes, ask for the next version, and keep coming back with changes.
I’m often asking for a screenshot or a link I can download on my phone. That could be a page I’m working on, a slide I need to review, or an image I want to share. I want to see the actual thing, not just read a description of what the agent did.
Favorite mode, and when do you switch?
Ultra and High. Ultra is my preference, but I use both.
Do you still develop locally? If so, when?
Not for development anymore. I work in orbs.
I do still use Amp locally for files that are already on my computer. If there’s a PowerPoint in Downloads that needs changing or converting to a PDF, I’ll have Amp work on that file. That’s different from maintaining a local development environment.
What’s a workflow with Orbs that you absolutely love?
Having the agent do the work and then take screenshots and verify it before handing it back. For a page, I can ask to see the whole thing and then see how it looks on a phone. I don’t have to work out how to run it or capture it myself.
I also like keeping work in threads I can return to. I’ve had a daily check-in thread running for over a month, with a reminder each evening. When I correct what it should check, it can update the process for the next day rather than starting again.
A recurring presentation is another good example. I ask Amp to find the previous deck, look at what’s shipped since the last meeting, and put the relevant updates into the next version. Sometimes I point it at another thread with the context it needs.
I review the slide content first and usually ask it to keep things simple. Once that’s right, it builds the deck with the existing branding and checks the rendered slides. Then I can give specific feedback on a title or a slide that doesn’t make sense without rebuilding the whole thing.
How do you review changes?
From the agent’s proof. I ask for screenshots and videos, and for document work I want the rendered PDF or deck. I care about the thing I’m going to use or send, not just whether the agent says it’s finished.
For visual work, I give it a reference and then react to what it produces. Recently I took a banner and asked for A4 landscape artwork and a version for smaller screens, then continued with big-screen versions and overlays. My feedback was about matching the type, cleaning up marks in the background, and getting all the formats I needed.
For factual work, a good-looking document isn’t enough. I’ve asked Amp to compare two versions of a document against each other and to fill in questionnaires from source material. I want it to distinguish what the sources actually support from what still needs someone to confirm.
I still ask the oracle to review changes too. But I also look at the output myself and push back when it isn’t right. A lot of my feedback is just a few words, but I can be quite particular about the result.
Which skills, plugins, or MCPs do you use? Anything you built for yourself?
Very little. The main example is a skill for Amp-branded slide decks.
It gives me a repeatable way to make presentations with the right fonts and styles, rather than explaining the branding each time. Amp builds a self-contained HTML deck and can screenshot the slides to check for things like overlapping text before I use it.
I’ve also asked it to take the style of an existing deck and apply it to another one while keeping the content and layout the same. That’s the sort of repeat work I want to hand over.
How do you use Puck?
Mostly on mobile, and sometimes in Slack for quick questions. I use it to catch up on work or find my way back to previous threads.
One request was simply, “Walk me through my last threads for this week.” It looked through them and gave me a rundown. I also use it to ask what something is or how a part of Amp works, without needing to start a bigger piece of work.
What’s a prompt or phrase you keep reusing?
For presentations, a recurring instruction is:
My follow-ups are often much shorter. “Take screenshots.” “Delete this.” “Undo.” I’ll give it a reference or the wording I want, see the result, and keep adjusting from there.
What do you still do by hand, and why?
Not much of the file preparation. I still make the decisions about what I want to say and what I’m happy to send.
With writing, I often paste my own wording and ask whether it makes sense or whether a paragraph is repetitive. I don’t automatically want a rewrite. Sometimes it tries a version and I just say “undo” because I prefer what we had.
There’s also the final bit of downloading a file, pasting a link, or sending something to someone. I want Amp to get it ready, but preparing something and sending it are separate steps.
Anything else? A surprising thing Amp did, a thing that didn’t work, a thing you wish it did.
It’s the things that used to be so annoying that always impress me. That might be reducing the size of a file so I can email it, or generating a document.
The artwork job ended with a very ordinary problem: I couldn’t download the zip. I told Amp it had to be under 25 MB and suggested two zips. It compressed the images and split the files into two smaller downloads.
That’s a lot of what I use Amp for. The job isn’t finished when it has generated something; I need the file in a form I can actually use. Being able to keep asking for those last changes in the same conversation is useful.