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Agent Workshop

Agent Workshop - Give Your Agent a Home Inside ChatGPT

Week 1Agent Workshop

Use a desktop browser for this workshop. Set up a ChatGPT Project for your . Keep your profile and instructions together so your agent is ready for your next task.

What You Need for This Guide

  • A desktop browser.
  • Your current Agent Profile file, saved where you can find it.
  • Your approved ChatGPT work account with Project and file-upload access.

Create your Agent Profile

Choose the tool you’re allowed to use

Your approved tool

The tool your company approved.

Pick your approved tool above to see the steps and screenshots for it.

Start guide
5 steps · At your own pace
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Standard Data rules for AI at work

Data Rules

Data rules for AI at work

Check with your IT Team before you paste any work data into an AI tool. Avoid names, account numbers, customer data, or anything sensitive without explicit permission from IT. If you aren't sure, redact anything sensitive and replace it with generic information. AI makes mistakes, make sure to fact check your agents outputs even if they sound right.

Before you start

  • Check with your IT teamAsk what your company allows before you put anything from work into an AI tool. Your company policy is the one that counts, and it is the one this library cannot see.
  • Use the tool your company approvedChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Gemini Enterprise are all covered here. Use the one your company approved, not the one you like best.
  • Sign in with your work accountA work account keeps your chats inside the agreement your company signed. A personal account in the same product sits outside it.
  • No approved account yetFollow the steps with made-up example text, or on paper, until IT gives you one.

Never put this into an AI tool

  • Customer or personal detailsNo names, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses or account numbers. That covers colleagues as well as customers.
  • Regulated recordsHealth, financial, HR and legal records stay in the systems built to hold them, unless IT has told you in writing that this tool may see them.
  • Passwords, keys and access codesNo credentials of any kind, yours or anyone else’s, and nothing that grants access to a system.
  • Anything under an NDA or not yet publicUnreleased plans, contracts, pricing and source code need clearance before they go near a chat window.
  • Anything your company policy prohibitsYour company’s rules win over anything in this library. If policy keeps something out of AI tools, it stays out, whatever a guide suggests.

Do this instead

  • Swap real details for placeholdersWrite “Customer A”, “[client name]”, “$X”. You get the same quality of answer, and you put the real details back yourself.
  • Describe the situation rather than pasting the documentMost of what an agent needs is the shape of the problem, not the file it arrived in.
  • Trim a file before you upload or paste itTake out the identifying columns and pages first, or work from a short extract.

Check the answer before you use it

  • Read it as if a colleague had drafted itAn agent states wrong things with complete confidence. Your name goes on the work, so the check is yours.
  • Say where the agent helpedFollow your company rule on disclosing AI assistance, especially in client-facing or formal work.

When you are not sure

  • Ask before you paste or upload, not afterA question to your IT team takes a minute. Cleaning up after a data incident takes a great deal longer.
  • When in doubt, leave it outIf you would not put it in an email to someone outside the company, keep it out of the chat.
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Step

Give your profile a saved home

  1. Open your saved profile and check that its contents describe your current work.

  2. In ChatGPT’s sidebar, choose Create project and name it My Agent. Open Sources → Add sources → Upload and choose your file. Wait until the source list shows it.

    Create project shows this account’s Default memory.
    Open Upload from Add sources.

Step

Tell the Project how to use the profile

Keep your profile in Sources. Save the instructions below separately so future Project chats know how to use it.

  1. Open Project settings → Instructions. Paste the complete card and select Save.

    Project instructions
    You are my work agent. You help me with my day-to-day work.

You have these reference files. Use each one for its job:
- Agent Profile: my role, priorities, the people I work with and how I like answers. Use it as background whenever it's relevant.

How to work with me:
- Don't invent facts about me, my organization or my work. If a missing detail would change your answer, ask me one question first.
- Run a file's First Setup Check only when I ask for it.
- My files are the master copies. When I ask to update my profile, follow its PROFILE VERSIONS rules if present and give me the complete next version. Remind me to save it as my master file, keep the old file, and replace the profile in this Project. Don't tell me the saved setup has been updated.

  2. Reopen Instructions and compare the saved text, including the final rule. It refers to your generally, so a later version’s filename can change.

These instructions do not turn off memory or Space access. Use the file comparison later to check the answer rather than assuming the Project can use only this source.

Step

Check what your agent understands

From My Agent, open Chats and use the empty message box to start a Project chat. Choose Chat if offered. Paste the full First Setup Check and send it.

First Setup Check
1. Summarize what you understand about:
   - My role
   - My responsibilities
   - The people I support
   - My goals and priorities
   - My recurring work
   - My organization
2. Identify anything that appears unclear, incomplete, or contradictory.
3. Do not fill in missing information with assumptions.
4. Ask me up to five questions that would most improve your ability to help me with my work.

Compare the summary with your file, especially your role, priorities and the people you support. Answer useful questions from what you know. Correct invented or misread details in this chat.

If the file itself needs a correction, note what should change for step 4. A corrected chat reply does not update the saved source.

Step

Keep a useful change in your master file

  1. From My Agent → Chats, start a fresh chat. Replace the card’s preference line with Devon’s recommendation: “I prefer my agent to act as a devil’s advocate when I present ideas and push back on my assumptions to ensure we get the best results.” Send the prompt.

    Preference + versioning prompt
    I want you to remember this work preference from now on:

[type your work preference]

Please update my Agent Profile with it and set up versioning, so I can track every change. Put it in my profile, not your built-in memory, so my file stays my master copy. Do all of this in one reply:

1. Add my preference to My Working Preferences, under the heading it fits best. Use my words, and don't add details I didn't give you. If it contradicts a preference already there, still add it, and name the conflict at the end so I can decide.
2. If my profile has no PROFILE VERSIONS section, add the one below to the end of it, word for word. If it already has that section, update its filename rule and active filename examples to use the hyphenated naming rule below; preserve the other rules and existing VERSION HISTORY entries. If it has no version number in its title, version line, or filename, treat the current profile as Version 1. Otherwise continue from its current number; do not restart numbering.
3. Follow PROFILE VERSIONS to return the entire updated Agent Profile, with the new version number in both its title and its filename. Keep every other section as it is, including FIRST SETUP CHECK.
4. In the What changed table, list my preference and any versioning-rule change: say whether you added PROFILE VERSIONS or updated its filename rule. Do not claim a section was added if it was already there.
5. End by walking me through saving it, as PROFILE VERSIONS describes.

PROFILE VERSIONS

The profile title, the version line under it, and the filename all show the same version number. Use simple whole numbers: v1, v2, v3, and so on. The title uses readable spaces, like My Agent Profile v2. The filename uses hyphens and no spaces, like My-Agent-Profile-v2.txt.

- If I ask which version you're using, give that line's number and date.
- If I ask you to update this profile, create the next version:
  1. Raise the current version number by one. Use that new number in the profile's title, like My Agent Profile v2, and in the version line below it, like Version 2 | Updated October 9, 2026. These are examples: use the actual next number and today's date. If you can't see today's date, write DATE NEEDED.
  2. Apart from the title, version line, and version history, change only what I asked. Keep everything else as it is, in the same order.
  3. Add a one-line summary to the top of VERSION HISTORY. Keep the five newest lines.
  4. Give me the entire updated profile as one downloadable plain-text file. The actual filename must follow My-Agent-Profile-vNUMBER.txt, replacing NUMBER with the new version number; for example, My-Agent-Profile-v2.txt. Use only plain ASCII letters, digits, hyphens, and the dot before txt. Do not use spaces, percent signs, or URL-encoded text in the filename. Set this name when creating the actual file, not only in the displayed download label, and use the same name for that label. Before returning the file, check that its filename follows this rule. Include every section and all unchanged content; do not return only the changes, summaries, or placeholders. If you can't create files, put the entire updated profile in one code block and give me the exact hyphenated filename to save it under above the code block.
  5. Show what changed in a table: Section, What changed, Why.
  6. Walk me through saving it: save the new file with its versioned filename in the same folder as my earlier profiles, keeping every older file. If you gave me a code block, tell me to copy the whole block into a new plain-text file with the exact filename you provided. Then replace the profile in your saved setup the same way I first added it, start a new chat, and ask which version you're using.
- If I tell you something new that belongs in this profile, offer a new version. Wait for my yes.
- Never overwrite an earlier version or reuse its number.
- You can't change your own saved setup, so don't say my profile is updated until I've replaced it.

VERSION HISTORY
- Version 1: Original profile.

    For a factual correction from step 3, ask for that correction and the complete file, following existing versioning rules. If offered Work, select Stay in Chat to continue this route.

  2. Open the updated profile beside your current file. Check that it includes your new preference and keeps the existing content, including FIRST SETUP CHECK. Ask for a correction if anything is missing or a preference conflicts.

  3. Save the complete profile in your profile folder with its new versioned filename, keeping the earlier file. If ChatGPT gives you the full text instead of a file, copy it into a new plain-text file with the supplied filename. Continue to step 5 to replace the Project source.

Step

Replace the source and check a new chat

Saving the master leaves the Project’s source unchanged. If you kept the same file, go straight to the new-chat check.

  1. In My Agent → Sources, open the old profile’s menu and remove it from the Project. Keep your earlier master on your computer. Use Add sources → Upload for the checked current file and confirm that Sources lists it without the old profile.

  2. Return to My Agent → Chats and use the empty message box to start a new chat. Do not reopen the update conversation. Send this check without attaching the profile again.

    Check the current profile (ChatGPT)
    Which version of my profile are you using?

Read the current Agent Profile in this Project’s Sources. Give its version number and updated date, then briefly summarize My Working Preferences. If the number or date is missing, say so. Use the file rather than an older conversation. Do not guess or change the profile.

    Compare the number, date and preference summary with the saved file, including your new preference. For a factual correction, repeat that part of First Setup Check here too. If they disagree, inspect Sources and retry in another new Project chat. If no version or date exists, the answer should say so. Compare the actual contents in every case.

When your work changes, repeat the save, replace and check loop.

After your profile has PROFILE VERSIONS rules, use the shorter future-update card. Edit your saved request to fit your work and preferences, then inspect, save, replace and check the returned file.

Future update pattern
Can you give me an updated version of my Agent Profile with this change?

[type the preference, assumption, or other detail you want changed]
Agent Workshop - Give Your Agent a Home Inside ChatGPT

Confirm your result

Confirm the outcomes below to finish this guide.

Final checks

You have a complete current Agent Profile saved outside ChatGPT and a fresh Project chat whose profile check agrees with its contents.

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