Instructions
Instructions shape how your agent behaves. They set the rules, tone, and priorities that guide the agent's responses. Like tools, instructions are reusable across multiple agents — think of an instruction set as a system prompt scoped to a role.
Creating an Instruction Set
- Open Instructions in the sidebar and click New Instruction. This opens an empty instruction editor.
- Fill in the following fields, all required:
- Name — A descriptive name for the instruction set, e.g. "Be Concise".
- Priority — How important this instruction set is overall: Low, Standard, High, or Critical.
- Type — The category of instruction: Core, Section, Guideline, Note, or Format.
- Description — What behavior this instruction shapes.
- Add one or more Rules (see below).
- Click Save.
Rules
Each instruction set contains a numbered list of rules — the individual directives within the set. Click Add rule to append one. Each rule card carries:
- Rule name — A short label, required.
- Priority — The importance of this specific rule: Low, Standard, High, or Critical. Defaults to Standard.
- Description — The actual instruction text, required.
Rules are numbered in order (RULE 1, RULE 2, and so on) and can be removed individually with the trash icon on the card.
For example, a "Customer Support Tone" instruction set might contain:
- "Always greet the customer by name" (High priority)
- "Use a friendly, professional tone" (Critical priority)
- "Avoid technical jargon unless the customer uses it first" (Standard priority)
Priority Levels
Priority helps the agent decide what to prioritize when rules might conflict:
- Critical — Must always be followed.
- High — Should be followed in most cases.
- Standard — Follow when there is no conflict with higher-priority rules.
- Low — Nice to have, but can be deprioritized.
The set-level priority applies to the instruction set as a whole; each rule can also carry its own.
Instruction Types
Types help you organize instruction sets by their role:
- Core — Foundational instructions that define the agent's identity or purpose.
- Section — Instructions scoped to a specific topic or area.
- Guideline — General rules for behavior.
- Note — Additional context or reminders.
- Format — Rules about how the agent should format its responses.
Attaching to Agents
Instruction sets are attached to agents by reference, from the Attachments card in the agent editor — see Agents. One set can be attached to as many agents as you like, and editing it updates every agent that uses it. The whole set applies to every agent it is attached to; rules cannot currently be excluded on a per-agent basis.
Managing Instructions
The Instructions landing page shows your instruction sets as cards, grouped into Your Instructions, Shared with you, your organization's instructions, and Third Loop Instructions. From there you can:
- Open an instruction set by clicking its card.
- Search with the search box, which matches on name and description.
- Filter to a single ownership group using the section toggle above the grid.
- Edit, Share, or Delete a set you own from its ⋯ menu. Deleting asks for confirmation.
- Leave a set shared with you from its ⋯ menu.
Sharing grants other users Edit or View access, and can also be done from the Share button in the editor header, which is where you remove existing shares.
Organization and Third Loop instruction sets are read-only. Sets marked Proprietary show only their description — their rules are deliberately hidden — but you can still attach them to your own agents.
Tags
Instruction sets carry tags in the underlying data, but the tag editor is not currently shown in the UI — nothing consumes tags for search or filtering yet. Tags on existing sets are preserved.