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Agent Workshop

Agent Workshop - Give Your Agent a Home Inside Gemini

Week 1Agent Workshop

Use a desktop browser for this workshop. Set up a Gemini Notebook for your . Keep your profile and instructions together so your agent has the context 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 Google Workspace account with Gemini Notebook 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.

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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

Add your profile to MyAgent

  1. Open your current profile. Keep it in My Agent Files, with a My subfolder for versions and Prompts for reusable prompts. An existing findable folder works too.

  2. In Gemini’s sidebar, under Notebooks, choose New notebook, then Organize your ideas. Name it MyAgent, as in the recording. Choose Add sources, then Upload files, and select your profile. Wait for processing, then open 1 Source to check the file.

    Name the Notebook and choose Organize your ideas.
    Sources shows Upload files and the current profile.

If Notebooks or uploads are unavailable, stop and ask IT to check your Google Workspace account, access and permissions.

Step

Explain how to use the profile

Open Notebook settings from the Notebook’s menu. Paste the Notebook instructions card into Instructions and select Save.

Notebook 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 Notebook. Don't tell me the saved setup has been updated.

Reopen the setting and compare the saved text with the card, including its final rule. Keep the profile file in Sources. The source-role line tells Gemini when that file is useful. You can personalize the working instructions, then check the results.

Notebook settings holds instructions and the memory setting.

Step

Check and correct its understanding

In MyAgent chat, send the full First Setup Check below.

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 who you support. Answer the useful clarification questions before continuing. If you don’t know an answer, say so. Correct a misread fact in this same chat.

If the file itself needs a correction, ask for the complete corrected profile using any existing versioning rules. Carry it into step 4 for review. If the summary is accurate and no useful question remains, continue without making an unnecessary change.

Step

Save a useful change as a new version

  1. Stay in MyAgent. Replace the card’s preference line with: “When I present an idea, act as a devil’s advocate and challenge my assumptions so we can stress-test it.” Send the prompt to add this preference to your Profile.

    Preference + versioning prompt (Gemini)
    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 source in my saved Notebook the same way I first added it. Ask me to open the current source and compare its changed content with my saved file, then ask you to identify the source filename and profile version and quote the updated preference with a source citation. This checks source contents and the response, not a fresh conversation.
- 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.
- Do not change the sources in my saved Notebook for me. Do not say the Notebook has my updated profile until I have replaced its profile source.

VERSION HISTORY
- Version 1: Original profile.

  2. Open the updated profile beside your current file. Check that it includes your new preference and any correction from step 3, and keeps the existing content, including FIRST SETUP CHECK. Ask for a correction if anything is missing or a preference conflicts.

  3. Download the complete profile. Make its actual filename match the new version, such as My-Agent-Profile-v2.txt, with one .txt ending. If Gemini gives you the full text instead, copy it into a new plain-text file.

  4. Save the new file in your profile folder, keeping the earlier versions. Continue to step 5 to replace the Notebook source.

Step

Replace the source and check its contents

  1. Saving on your computer does not update Gemini’s source. Open 1 Source and remove the earlier profile from this Notebook. Use Add sources, then Upload files, to add the checked current file. Wait for processing. Confirm that Sources lists it and no longer lists the earlier profile. Keep both versions on your computer. Skip replacement if nothing changed.

  2. Open the current profile from Sources and compare its contents, including any change, with your saved file. In MyAgent, send the check below without pasting the preference again.

    Check the current profile source
    Use the Agent Profile currently listed in this Notebook’s Sources for this check.

Name its source filename and give the version number and updated date written inside the profile. Quote My Working Preferences exactly and include a source citation so I can check the source myself. If any of this is missing or you cannot read it, say so. Do not guess, update the profile, or treat earlier chat messages as the profile source.

    Check its filename, version, date and quoted preference against the source and local file. Open its source citation when provided. For another corrected fact, check that too. If they disagree, correct the source and repeat. If you cannot inspect the source, pause this check and use Help. This checks content agreement, not a fresh conversation free of earlier context.

For later changes, customize Future update pattern for your work, using the current profile and its PROFILE VERSIONS rules. Review, save, replace and check again. If older profile instructions say to start a new chat, use step 5’s Notebook source check.

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 Gemini

Confirm your result

Confirm the outcomes below to finish this guide.

Final checks

Your complete profile is saved outside Gemini, and the current Notebook source and profile-check response agree with it.

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