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A new agent starts with empty instructions, making it a general-purpose chatbot. Adding instructions gives your agent a purpose—similar to writing a job description for a new team member. Instructions tell your agent what it should do, how it should behave, and provide the context needed to do its job effectively. The instructions are always “top of mind” for the agent. They are included in the agent’s context in every situation, whether it is responding to a chat message, an external trigger (such as an email), or waking up to a scheduled event.
Agent instructions editor showing an invoice processing agent's role and workflow

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Editing Instructions

You have two ways to create and update agent instructions:
  • Direct editing — Click the Instructions link in the agent’s navbar to view and edit instructions directly. This gives you full control over the exact wording and structure.
  • Conversational configuration — Chat with your agent and then ask it to update its own instructions based on your conversation. The agent will draft instructions and ask for your approval before saving.
Getting an agent from “This works pretty OK” to “Wow this is awesome!” usually takes a few rounds of refinement. You can tweak the instructions directly, or give the agent feedback and ask it to analyze its own instructions and suggest improvements.

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Typical workflow

Here is a typical workflow for instructing a new agent:
  1. Start a conversation: Describe what you want the agent to do in plain language, as if you’re onboarding a new team member.
  2. Agent asks for what it needs: The agent requests capabilities, documents, or clarification based on your requirements.
  3. Agent drafts instructions: The agent writes its own instructions using your conversation and presents them for your review.
  4. Review and tweak: Read through the draft, make any tweaks, and approve. The agent begins working.
  5. Iterate over time: Return anytime to improve the agent—either by editing instructions directly or through further conversation.
This approach works because:
  • Writing concise, clear instructions is hard. The agent often writes better instructions than humans would, and when setting up a new agent, this is often easier than trying to write perfect instructions from the start.
  • You don’t need to be a technical expert, you focus on what problem the agent should solve, and the agent helps you figure out how to solve it.
  • The agent tells you what information and which capabilities it needs, so you don’t need to guess.
  • Instructions are written in clear language you can review and tweak
  • You can iterate and improve the agent’s behavior through conversation, so you can start simple and improve the agent as you go.
The agent will only update its instructions if you ask it to, or if it recognizes that an update would help it serve you better and asks for permission. The Update Instructions capability is enabled by default but can be disabled if you prefer full manual control.

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Instruction Versioning

Agent instructions are versioned automatically, so you never need to worry about losing information when you or the agent make changes. With versioning you can:
  • Track changes over time
  • Revert to previous versions if needed
  • See who made changes (you or the agent)
  • Compare versions side-by-side to see exactly what changed
Version timeline showing instruction changes between versions with additions and changes highlighted