Reusing a good prompt on Mac: copy any message you sent
On a Mac, each message you sent in Swiftly Workspace's Conversations has a small copy button next to its time. One click puts the exact text on the clipboard, ready to paste into a new conversation, a note or a message to a colleague.
Good prompts take a few tries. Once you have one that returns the overdue list in the shape you like, or a project summary your manager reads without questions, you want it again next month, word for word. Retyping it from memory is how the useful details get lost.
How to copy a message you sent
- Open Conversations in the sidebar and go to the conversation with the prompt you want.
- Find your message. Under it, next to the time, is a small copy icon. Hover over it and it reads Copy message.
- Click it. The icon turns into a checkmark and the label changes to Message copied for a couple of seconds.
- Paste it wherever you need it: a new conversation, the Notes app, an email to a colleague or a shared document.
The button copies the whole message as plain text, exactly as you wrote it. It sits on the messages you sent, not on the assistant's replies. If you want a single sentence, you can still select part of your message and copy just that. The button is a real control, and VoiceOver reads its label.
This is a Mac feature. On iPhone and iPad, Conversations works as before, without the copy button.
Prompts worth keeping
The prompts people come back to tend to be specific about the period, the records and the shape of the answer. A few examples:
| When | A prompt to keep |
|---|---|
| Monday morning | Which invoices are overdue by more than 14 days? Group them by customer and show the amount due. |
| Month end | List the payments we received last month that are not allocated to an invoice yet. |
| Project review | For each active project, compare the hours logged this month with last month, as a table. |
| Before a client call | Summarize the open invoices and recent payments for this customer in five lines. |
More ideas, grouped by task, are in prompts for running a service business from a chat window. For what the chat can look up and how it answers, see an AI chat over your own business data.
Ways to keep a prompt library of your own
Copying doesn't save the prompt anywhere in Swiftly. There is no built-in prompt library, so the copy button is the bridge to wherever you already keep notes:
- A note per routine. One note for month end, one for project reviews. Paste the prompt with a line about when it works best.
- A shared document for the team. When one person finds a prompt that gets the right table, the whole team can use it.
- Side by side on the Mac. Keep the note open in a second window next to Conversations, a setup covered in working in several windows on a Mac.
- Say it instead. If you dictate, a saved prompt is also a script to read out; see talking to the AI by voice.
A prompt is not the same as memory. Assistants can also keep short notes about a record or a conversation, which is a different feature with its own controls, described in AI assistants that remember, and how to make them forget.
Which AI answers a pasted prompt
A copied prompt runs on whatever powers Conversations when you paste it. With a cloud provider, that is the provider your company connected with its own key, such as OpenAI or Mistral. With Apple Intelligence on a supported Mac, the answer is generated on the device and the text isn't sent to a cloud AI provider. The same prompt can come back worded a little differently from one provider to another, so check the result when you switch.
The copy button arrived with the October 2026 update; the roundup of what is new this autumn covers the rest.
Frequently asked questions
How do I copy a chat message on a Mac?
In Conversations, click the small copy icon next to the time under your message. The whole message goes to the clipboard as plain text, and the icon briefly turns into a checkmark to confirm.
Can I copy the assistant's answer too?
The copy button is on your own messages. For a reply, select the text you need and copy it the usual way with the Edit menu or a right-click.
Does copying a prompt share it with anyone?
No. It goes to your Mac's clipboard and nowhere else. Nothing is sent or saved until you paste it somewhere yourself.
Is there a prompt library in Swiftly Workspace?
No. Keep your best prompts in a note or a shared document and paste them in when you need them.
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