Best way to structure reusable GPT prompt templates?

[0xstackforge]

I’m building ChatGPT Recipe Studio, a desktop app for creating and managing reusable GPT “recipes” (preset prompt patterns for rephrasing, summarizing, replies, and emails).

The app is built with Python + PyQt6 and focuses on saving, reusing, and organizing effective prompts.

What’s a clean way to structure these prompt templates so they’re easy to extend and maintain as the project grows?

[JamesWMeeks]

[0xstackforge]

Thanks! I really appreciate your help 👍

[Nyrok]

I ran into the exact same problem building a prompt tool. Here is what worked for me: store each template as a single JSON file with typed blocks instead of one big string.

The idea is that a prompt is not just text. It is a composition of distinct semantic pieces: a role, an objective, constraints, examples, output format, etc. When you store them as separate typed blocks, you get:

• Reusability -- swap the role block without touching the rest
• • Validation -- each block type has its own rules (e.g., examples need input/output pairs)
• • Multi-format export -- compile the same blocks into different LLM formats (Claude wants XML tags, ChatGPT works better with markdown headers)
    A minimal template file could look like:

{
  "id": "email-rewrite",
  "category": "writing",
  "blocks": [
    { "type": "role", "content": "You are a professional email editor." },
    { "type": "objective", "content": "Rewrite the following email to be more concise and professional." },
    { "type": "input", "content": "{{raw_email}}" },
    { "type": "constraints", "content": "Keep the same tone. Do not add information." },
    { "type": "output_format", "content": "Return only the rewritten email, no commentary." }
  ]
}

Then your app loads all JSON files from a templates directory and hydrates them at runtime (add IDs, positions if you have a visual editor, etc.). Adding a new template is just dropping a new .json file in the right folder. No code changes needed.

I'm the author of flompt, an open-source visual prompt builder that uses this exact architecture. Templates live in templates/<category>/<id>.json and get loaded via glob at build time. You can check the structure here: https://github.com/Nyrok/flompt/tree/master/templates

Might give you some ideas for your Recipe Studio.