Write the brief it reads every time
- What this is. The project, who it's for, what the parts are called.
- How work is done here. Which sheet is the true one. How things are named.
- What it can't see. Facts nobody could find by looking. The heading that matters most.
- What it must never do. Actions, not attitudes. It reads all four before every run.
Write the short page of local facts your agent reads before every run, and add one line each time it gets something wrong.
Prevents mistakes like "The Failure This Prevents".
Help me write a short page of facts that an AI agent will read before every run on one project of mine. My project, and what the agent will do in it: [one or two sentences] Already decided, it must never: [your never lines] Ask me one question at a time, up to six, and wait for each answer. Ask about things the agent could not learn by looking at my files: names that differ between places, folders or tabs that must not change, numbers that were typed in by hand, and the exact place or command for routine work. If my answer is general, ask once for the exact name, then move on. After my last answer, write the page with exactly these four headings: What this is. How work is done here. What you cannot see. Never. Fifteen lines or fewer in total. Every line must be something a stranger could check: a name, a place, a command or one forbidden action. Leave out anything about being careful, thorough or following best practice. Don't invent a detail about my project. If you need one, ask. If you can't fill a heading from my answers, write one line saying what you still need. No statistics.
Write the short page of local facts your agent reads before every run, and add one line each time it gets something wrong.
Imagine a freelancer who keeps a client's payments in a spreadsheet. She asks her agent:
Total the March payments from the payments sheet.
It answers at once:
March payments total ₹4,18,650 across 37 rows.
The number is wrong, and nothing about it looks wrong. The sheet has two March tabs. "Mar" was typed in by hand during a busy week. "Mar-bank" came from the bank statement and is the one everyone trusts. The agent picked the first tab it found.
It couldn't have known. Nothing in the file says which tab is the true one. She knows, so she never wrote it down.
One line, read before every run, fixes this run and every later one:
The Mar tab was typed in by hand. Use Mar-bank for any total.
If you've used your agent more than twice, you've noticed that every session starts from nothing. It doesn't know the client is called Northgate in the contract and NG in the folder names. It doesn't know nothing may be written to the Archive folder. So you type it again, slightly differently each time, and two runs behave differently for a reason you won't remember.
A request belongs to one run. It does its job and leaves with the session.
A standing brief belongs to the project. It's a short page the tool puts in front of the agent before your request, on every run, without being asked. That last part is the whole difference. A page you have to remember to attach is only a longer request.
So stop instructing and start describing. A request says "do this now". A brief says "this is what is true here".
If you find yourself typing the same sentence into a third session, that sentence belongs in your brief.
10 minutes. You'll write a few facts your agent can't see for itself, load them, and watch a fresh chat answer a question it couldn't have answered before.
You need the tool you ran in Lesson 2. The box below these steps is your Standing brief.
Here's a filled example:
| Heading | Example |
|---|---|
| What it can't see for itself | The Mar tab was typed in by hand. Use Mar-bank for any total. |
| The client is Northgate in contracts and NG in folder names. | |
| What it must never do | Never write to the Archive folder. |
If you had to attach anything by hand, it didn't load. That's the test.
When you have time, run one real task and watch for guesses. Add one line for each. "More details" in the box has the other two headings.
Standing brief
The facts your agent can't see for itself. It reads them before every run, so you stop retyping them.
Facts nobody could find by looking: which tab is the true one, names that differ between places, folders that must not change. One line each.
Your "never" lines from Lesson 1. Each names a specific action.
More details (optional)
Two or three sentences: what the project does, who it's for, what the parts are called.
Where new files go, which sheet is the true one, how things are named.
Write the working version you would reuse or hand to someone else.
Your brief stays saved in this browser. Lesson 6 pastes lines from it into the jobs you save. Lesson 9 tests whether text from outside can override it. Lesson 16 hands it to someone else.
Next, you'll look at everything your agent has in front of it on one run, and choose one thing to leave out.
For now, remember:
Describe what is true here. Add one line per mistake.