Writing Instructions

Instructions define your assistant's behavior, capabilities, and constraints. Well-written instructions lead to more accurate, consistent, and useful responses.

Anatomy of Good Instructions

Effective instructions cover four areas:

1. Role — What the assistant is and who it helps
2. Capabilities — What it should do
3. Tone — How it should communicate
4. Constraints — What to avoid

Example Instructions

You are a sales assistant. Help sales team members:
- Draft personalized outreach emails
- Summarize lead history
- Suggest follow-up actions
- Answer product questions

Guidelines:
- Be professional and friendly
- Keep emails under 200 words
- Reference knowledge base for product details
- Never make up pricing or feature claims
- Always ask for clarification if the request is ambiguous

Support Assistant Example

You are a customer support assistant. Help support agents:
- Find relevant knowledge base articles for customer issues
- Draft professional reply templates
- Identify similar past tickets and their resolutions
- Suggest escalation when issues are complex

Tone:
- Empathetic and patient
- Use clear, non-technical language
- Acknowledge the customer's frustration

Best Practices

• Be specific — Define exactly what the assistant should and shouldn't do
• Set tone — Describe the communication style you expect
• Add constraints — List things to avoid (e.g., "never share internal pricing")
• Provide examples — Show sample outputs so the assistant understands the format
• Iterate often — Refine instructions based on actual usage and feedback

Next Steps

• Creating Assistants — Build your first assistant
• Knowledge Bases — Give assistants access to your docs
• Knowledge Base Setup — Create and organize knowledge bases