Instructions for the Assistant

Some things the assistant can't learn from your workflows: which server is "prod", who "the team" is, what you mean by "the site". Write them down once as instructions and the assistant uses them in every request, instead of you repeating them or filling the form in by hand.

Prod is web-01. Staging is web-stg-01.
Reports go to team@acme.com.
When I say "the web service", I mean php-fpm.

With these, "check disk space on prod" proposes Check Disk Space with Server already set to web-01.

Where they go

Kind	Where	Used
Global	Settings → Assistant → Instructions	In every request
Project	A project's Edit dialog → Assistant instructions	When you ask from the project's page, or from one of its workflows or apps. Added to the global ones.

When you're in a project with instructions, the Assistant panel says Using the instructions of … above the message box. The project's page shows its instructions too.

When the two disagree, the project's win. When your request says something else ("check disk space on web-02"), the request wins.

Instructions are used for finding and filling in workflows and for writing drafts. A draft started from a request keeps the instructions that request was sent with.

What to write

Good instructions are facts and preferences the assistant can't guess:

• Names for things: servers, sites, environments, databases. "Prod is web-01."
• People and addresses: "Reports go to team@acme.com." "Ana is ana@acme.com."
• What you mean by a word: "The site" is the Drupal one. "The web service" is php-fpm.
• Defaults you always pick: "Use the EU region unless I say otherwise."

Don't put here:

• What a workflow does: write that in its description. See Workflows It Can Find.
• Passwords, keys or tokens: the instructions are sent to your AI provider with every request. Use a secret global variable instead.
• Long documents: they're sent with every request, so they cost more and make the assistant less precise.

How long

Keep them short: a few lines up to about 1,500 characters (20 to 30 short lines) for each. Past that, the box shows a counter as a reminder. The limit is 4,000 characters each.

One fact per line, written plainly, works best.

In the terminal

tipeline assistant prompt uses the global instructions. Add a project's with --project:

tipeline assistant prompt --project "ACME client" "check disk space on prod"

Backups

Project instructions go with the project in backups and project exports. Global instructions are a setting and stay on this computer.