A slash command is a short typed shortcut that points to something already prepared: a prompt, a skill, a project workflow, or a tool command. In Claude-style tools you type / and the available commands pop up in the chat box; in a terminal it feels like a named command. Either way the pattern is the same: short trigger, longer behavior, no re-explaining the process each run.
Speed dial works the same way. You could type the full phone number every time, or save “Mom” or “Office” and tap that instead. Tapping the shortcut reaches the same place through the same network, just faster.
Why you care
The best use case is work you do often enough that retyping the prompt is wasteful, but important enough that you want the same process every time. The point is making the right workflow easy to call at the moment you need it; speed is a side effect. A command that hides too much gets dangerous: it feels easy while you forget what it’s actually doing. Risky workflows should still spell out inputs, outputs, and where a human reviews.