How To Teach Your AI Assistant To Remember How You Like Things Done

If you have used an AI assistant often, you've likely observed one thing that's been annoying you. Each time you begin a new conversation, you forget everything you like to have done. You re-explain your formatting, tone, and preferences, and it happens again. The solution is quite easy: put your preferences in a simple text file and then have the assistant read it before each task.

The Problem Of Starting From Zero Every Time

With a basic chatbot, you lose all of your preferences. You can ask it to create a calendar reminder, and it will do so, but the next time you ask it, it starts again. All the formatting preferences, all the naming habits, and all the defaults have to be done over again, which negates much of the time that the assistant is supposed to save.

A Small Example That Shows The Difference

Now imagine you ask an assistant to set a reminder for your birthday, and then you instruct it to put a cake emoji in the title and a gift reminder in the description for every birthday reminder. Later, upon once again asking for another birthday reminder in a new session, the cake emoji and gift note will appear without repeating any instructions. The assistant recalled the rule and applied it to a new task. That one act is the basis for all other actions in this guideline.

The Simple Document That Acts As Your Assistant’s Memory

What Goes Inside It

The idea is to create a single document (in plain English) that acts as a master list of your preferences. It typically contains a block of general instructions that the assistant will use for each task, a section of instructions for the assistant to use to control the output, and a section of instructions for how the file should be maintained as it is used. The assistant records its new preference in this document; you don't need to keep it up to date manually.

How To Set It Up

Save the file with the same name as your assistant expects, in this case, "agents.md." Put it in a folder on your computer and attach this folder to the assistant as its workspace. The assistant will read the file after the connection and will act in accordance with your preferences. If there's no connected folder, you're effectively using a regular chatbot again.

A Real Rule In Action

It can be taught a new rule in one sentence, like renaming the files of the images you create with short descriptions, so you can see at a glance what an image comprises without opening it. The next time you put a folder of photos into your workspace and request a rename, they will automatically be renamed by the assistant according to your naming convention—rather than changing it each time.

Connecting Your Everyday Apps

Access Alone Is Not Enough

It's easy to link the assistant to apps like your calendar, email, notes, and messaging, but access isn't very helpful. The true genius of the thing is to teach it how you like to use each app. You could, for instance, set it to assume meetings are 45 minutes and make sure calendar descriptions begin with a one-line description and then three short bullets. From this moment on, all events it generates are like that, and no reminders are needed.

Keep the main document short

Once you have more apps connected, having all the rules in one file can become cumbersome, and a heavy file makes the assistant slower for each and every rule. It is better to have all the rules for the app in another file and reference that file in the main file. This ensures that the primary file is small in size, and details are only loaded when the app is used.

Useful Starter Rules to Try

For most, a few basic rules apply. For e-mail: inform them to not include a sign-off, as you already have one. Make sure to note that it should always stick with your original templates, rather than creating new pages. Use it to divide thread summaries into decisions, action items, and open questions when communicating with the team.

Working With Files And Websites Side By Side

Previewing And Editing Without Leaving The Conversation

You can open and edit documents directly beside the conversation with the help of a side panel. Highlight a range of a file, type the modification, and watch it in the file in a few seconds, and to undo if something went wrong.

Using the Built-in Browser

The assistant can also operate within a built-in browser! You can rather show or point to a particular part of a web page and describe the change you want, for example, requesting a dark mode preview of one section. If the assistant is also connected to the platform where your site is located, it can do the change for you. Logging in to accounts within the browser is also possible, but it comes at a cost of convenience vs. privacy.

A Side Chat For Quick Questions

A temporary side chat allows you to ask a question about a document without interrupting the work you are doing. It does not have to be a part of the main conversation, it shouldn't be a part of it, and it will be deleted if it is closed, so anything important must be copied out first.

Teaching the Assistant to Write Like You

Turning Your Edits Into Lasting Rules

You will still be making edits to the assistant's draft documents, so you can make those changes into rules. Once you've edited a draft, copy and paste the final version into the same conversation and request that the assistant do a comparison of your work with the original text, locate the similarities and differences between your writing style, and suggest updates to the writing section of your document. It will show you the patterns it detected, skip any changes that aren't related to tone, and update the file when you accept. With the passage of time, you tell yourself less and less.

Splitting Your Work Into Smaller Folders

Using a Simple Routing Map

A single folder fills up as your setup expands. A routing map can help here: With this, you can divide your work into smaller folders for the same sections in your life and work, e.g., for travelling. In the main document, an entry is made stating that any travel-related request should go to the travel folder, which contains information such as loyalty memberships, notes from previous trips, and seat preferences. If you later need assistance in planning a trip, the assistant is already familiar with where to find it.

My Honest Take On Setting This Up

I had been waiting for awhile to create something like this because it felt like additional homework. What made me change my mind was that I found myself re-typing the same instructions; I like my notes formatted a certain way and messages worded a certain way, which I never want to have in an email. After allowing the assistant to make those preferences for me, the frequent explanations largely faded. Less teaching a new tool and more like training a new worker only once, rather than having to remind them day after day.

Why This Is Worth Trying

An assistant becomes much more useful in that it is aware of how you work, and a plain English document is a low-effort method to provide it with that memory. Begin with just one rule and let the assistant build on that as you go.