Guide Library

Week 1 · Guide 2 of 7

Prompting

Prompting Your Agent

Field Guide

  • 20–30 minGuided walkthrough

You want to be able to bring your agent a task and feel confident that it will complete it accurately and in the correct format.

You’ll leave with

A checked result for your own task and a process you can repeat in the future.

What You Need for This Guide

  • Your or the Project/Notebook you saved it in.
  • A small task and the facts or notes it needs. Step 1 helps you choose a task.
  • Your approved AI tool and a place to save the checked result.

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
6 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.

On this guide

  • When using the optional preference in step 4.A preference for recommendations does not authorize the agent to act. Review any action that would send, post or change a record before you authorize it.
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Step

Write a brief for one task of your own

Choose a small result you could use: a short message, handover checklist, explanation, comparison of two options or brief meeting plan. Pick something the agent can draft from a few facts or notes you can supply.

  1. Choose a task

    If you already know what you want the agent to produce, continue to Write the brief.

    If you need an idea, open a chat in the Project/Notebook holding your , or attach your Profile to a new chat. Send Find a task for your brief below. The agent will suggest small tasks and tell you what information each needs. Choose one you would actually use.

    Find a task for your brief
    Help me choose one small task for practicing how to brief an agent. I will write the brief myself and send it afterward. Do not write the brief or do the task now.

Find a task where an agent can produce a short useful result from a few facts or notes I can supply, such as a draft message, a checklist, a short explanation or a comparison of two supplied options. Avoid broad projects, outside research and actions in other systems. The task should let me practice stating the situation, requested result, audience and requirements.

If my Agent Profile is already in this conversation, use relevant confirmed details as starting points. A profile is optional. Do not ask me to attach one or assume I have a pending task or project.

When you have enough context, suggest two or three numbered tasks. For each, say what small output I could ask for, what I would need to supply, and what I would check myself. Present them as possibilities for me to confirm. Do not give the copyable task description until I have chosen a task.

If you need context, ask one short question at a time, with two or three familiar suggested answers. Ask no more than two questions before offering task options. Do not collect all four parts of the brief now.

With every set of choices, include “Something else / none of these.” Let me choose a number, combine options or answer in my own words. Wait for each answer and use it to shape what comes next.

If I already named a clear task that fits, skip the questions and suggestions. If it is too large, offer two or three smaller outputs I could practice with and wait for my choice.

Once I choose, return one sentence describing only my selected task in one copyable code block. I will put it in the requested-result part of Brief your agent. Use only details I confirmed. Do not attach the task to a profile project unless I confirmed the connection. Omit details I have not supplied instead of claiming they do not exist or have not been decided. Then stop and wait for my brief.

    Keep this chat open. Put the task description under What I need in Brief your agent below. In the next substep, you'll add the background, reader and requirements.

  2. Write the brief

    Spend two or three minutes noting what is happening, what you need back, who will use it and what it must include. Use current information and mark unconfirmed facts as unknown.

    Fill Brief your agent from your notes. Put the task description under What I need. Use placeholders for details you need to withhold, and mark facts you cannot confirm as unknown.

    Brief your agent
    Download
    If my Agent Profile is available, use it as background.

What is going on:
[Two or three sentences of background, the way you would tell a new colleague on their first day.]

What I need:
[The thing you want back: an email, a summary, a plan, three headline options.]

Who it is for:
[The reader, and what they care about.]

What done looks like:
[Length, format, and anything it must include or must not say.]

Use the facts I supplied. Do not invent dates, approvals, owners or commitments. Mark missing facts clearly.

Step

Add relevant background and send the brief

Continue the task-finding chat, or start a new chat in the Project/Notebook holding your . For a new chat elsewhere, attach or paste your current Profile as background.

The Profile from Start With The Human, Not The Tool supplies recurring background. Your brief supplies today’s facts and the result you want. Old Profile details may be outdated.

Send your brief and sources. Add: Ask one focused question if a missing fact would change the result. Leave anything I cannot confirm marked unknown. Answer from what you know.

Check the result against the brief’s output, reader, requirements and facts. Keep it if it fits. Otherwise, note the mismatch for step 5.

Step

Use an example when the format needs showing

Skip this step if the first draft has the right shape. Otherwise, stay in the same conversation and use the prompt below with a short example from your own approved past work. If you have no example, describe the format you want, such as a one-sentence decision followed by three progress bullets. You can continue without supplying an example.

Match this example
Here is an example of the shape I want. Match its length, tone, and structure. Use the content from my brief, not the content of the example, and do not copy any names or numbers from it.

Example:
[Paste your scrubbed example here.]

The example supplies length, tone and structure, not facts. Check that no name, number or decision from it appears in your draft.

Step

Optionally set a preference for uncertainty

If unnecessary questions interrupt your work, try this optional preference in the same chat.

Options, not open-ended questions
Download
When working with me:

If a missing fact would materially change the answer, ask a focused question. Offer choices when they make sense, but let me answer in my own words. Do not guess a date, owner, approval or commitment. For a detail that can safely remain open in a draft, use a clearly marked placeholder.

If there are meaningfully different ways to do the work, recommend one, explain its tradeoff and offer up to two alternatives when useful. Do not produce several complete drafts unless I ask or the differences need showing.

For a minor choice that does not change the meaning, use a sensible default and mention it briefly.

A recommendation is not authorization. I make the important decisions and authorize any action that sends, posts or changes a record. Do not treat this preference as permission to act.

A missing fact that changes the answer deserves a question. A minor presentation choice can use a sensible default. Decide whether this helped your task.

Keep only useful wording. Edit it to fit your work and save it in your portable or master note. Then refresh any saved agent or project from that master. This chat does not update those copies.

Step

Correct anything that missed your brief

If the result meets your brief and its facts match your sources, there is nothing to fix.

Otherwise, name one change in the same chat, and anything to keep: “Put the decision first and leave the unconfirmed date open.”

For a factual mistake, give the supporting source and correction. Leave unavailable facts unresolved. Distinguish suggested actions from agreed commitments. Recheck the revision against your brief and source for any new date, approval, owner or commitment.

Save your brief beside your working material. Its four parts are reusable. Replace the task details and facts each time.

Step

Check assumptions before using the answer

Use What did you assume? to surface gaps worth checking. The list may miss an assumption. It cannot establish that the answer is correct.

What did you assume?
Download
List the assumptions you can identify in this answer that I did not state. Mark the ones that would materially change the result if wrong. Separate missing facts from choices about presentation. Tell me what source or confirmation would resolve each important missing fact.

Do not imply that this list proves the answer is correct or that you found every assumption.

Check important dates, decisions and commitments against your sources, or confirm them with the person responsible. Remove unsupported claims or leave them unconfirmed. Recheck any corrected claim.

Copy the checked result where you will use it. Keep your editable brief with it and any tested preference in your portable master.

Prompting Your Agent

Confirm your result

Confirm the outcomes below to finish this guide.

Final checks

You have a useful draft, checklist, comparison or plan for your own task. Its important facts are supported by your sources, and anything still unknown is clear.

You have an editable brief you can use again with current information, and any preference you chose to keep is saved in your portable master copy.

Provide Feedback

Thanks. That went straight to the people who write these guides.

Next in Week 1

From Brain Dump to Action Plan

Continue in the suggested order, or choose another guide for your task.

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