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Project Instructions

Published February 27, 2026 · Last updated March 5, 2026 · 4 min read

Every project has its own personality — the data it holds, the tone it needs, the rules that apply. Project instructions let you tell the agent how to behave in a specific project, and those instructions stick for every conversation in that project.

Think of it like a briefing document for a new team member. Instead of repeating "always use formal tone" or "this project tracks European clients — use DD/MM/YYYY dates" at the start of every conversation, you write it once. The agent reads it every time.

What project instructions do

When you set instructions on a project, the agent receives them at the start of every conversation in that project — automatically, before you say a word. They shape how the agent writes, what it prioritizes, and what assumptions it makes.

A few things instructions are good for:

  • Setting tone and style. "Use formal language in this project" or "Keep responses concise — this project is for executive reporting."
  • Establishing context. "This project tracks Q1 pipeline data for the EMEA region. All currency values are in EUR."
  • Defining rules. "Never delete records from the master sheet without confirming first" or "Always include sources when citing data."
  • Guiding priorities. "This project is for financial analysis — prioritize accuracy over speed."

Instructions don't expire. They apply until you change or remove them.

How to set project instructions

The quickest way: ask the agent

Set project instructions: always use formal tone, format dates as DD/MM/YYYY, and include data sources in every analysis.

The agent updates the project instructions immediately. You can verify by asking:

What are the current project instructions?

You can also update them incrementally:

Add to the project instructions: when creating documents, use the executive summary template.

Or replace them entirely:

Replace the project instructions with: This project is for customer health tracking. Use a supportive, action-oriented tone. Flag any account with NPS below 7.

Setting instructions in project settings

  1. Open the project you want to configure.
  2. Click the project name in the sidebar to open project settings.
  3. Find the Instructions field.
  4. Type or paste your instructions.
  5. Changes save automatically.

Both approaches do the same thing. The chat method is faster for quick changes. The settings panel is better when you want to review and edit a longer set of instructions.

What good instructions look like

Instructions work best when they're specific and actionable. The agent interprets them literally, so clarity matters.

Effective instructions:

This project manages onboarding data for enterprise clients. Use professional tone. When creating sheets, always include a "Last Updated" date field. Currency is USD. Fiscal quarters follow calendar quarters.

All documents in this project are customer-facing. No internal jargon. No hedging language. Write at a high-school reading level.

This is a data migration project. Before running any transformation, describe what will change and confirm with me. Accuracy is the top priority.

Less effective instructions:

Be helpful and thorough.

The agent is already helpful and thorough. Instructions should tell it things it wouldn't know otherwise — project-specific context, preferences, and constraints.

How instructions differ from memory

This is the question that comes up most, and the distinction is practical.

Project instructions are rules you set deliberately. They're explicit, stable, and apply to every conversation in the project. You write them. You control them. They don't change unless you change them.

Memory is what the agent jots down on its own during conversations — schemas it discovered, preferences you mentioned, decisions you made. Memory is organic and accumulates over time. It's useful context, but you didn't sit down and write it.

The simplest way to think about it: instructions are policy. Memory is notes.

If something is important enough that the agent should follow it every time, make it an instruction. If it's context the agent picked up naturally, that's memory doing its job.

Editing and clearing instructions

To update instructions, ask the agent or edit them in project settings. New instructions overwrite the previous version completely — there's no append mode in settings, though the agent can add to existing instructions when you ask it to in chat.

To clear instructions entirely:

Clear the project instructions.

Or delete the content in the project settings panel. The agent goes back to its default behavior for that project.

Next steps

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