Anthropic describes Claude Code, its wildly popular coding agent, as a brilliant but very new employee. That metaphor applies perfectly to Gummies too. The difference between a Gummy that’s a true sidekick and one that just sort of works comes down to the instructions you give it.
Writing great instructions is part art, part science. So here are three best practices for writing great instructions.
First up, include a role. Including a role right up front for your Gummy can drastically improve its performance. Something like “you’re an executive assistant for a CFO of a Fortune 500 company” will give you a professional, succinct, and accurate Gummy. While something like “you’re a sidekick to the Duolingo TikTok team” will give you a laid-back, irreverent, and maybe even manic Gummy. Providing a role does many things at once: it focuses the Gummy on the task, sets the tone, and increases accuracy.
Tip number two: be clear and direct. Remember, your Gummy is a brilliant intern. They’re new to your business. They don’t know how you operate, so be extremely direct and specific with it. An instruction like “draft beautiful reports” can be confusing. What is beautiful? What is a report? Whereas something like “always write reports in HTML with the following sections as headings” and then giving an example will yield dramatically better and consistent results from your Gummies.
Final tip: use Gummy to improve Gummy. Your Gummy doesn’t remember past conversations. If it messes up, odds are it’ll mess up again in the future unless you update the instructions. So when Gummy goes off course, ask it: “What could I add to the system prompt to help you get this right next time?” This turns your Gummy into its own prompt editor and gives it a kind of virtual memory of the mistakes it’s made in the past and what it should avoid in this conversation. This will drastically improve your Gummies.
So those are three simple but powerful tips to make your Gummies even better. And on this page you’ll find examples to try and improve, and even a Gummy that helps you write better prompts.
Writing Great Instructions
Instructions are what make an agent useful. The difference between an agent your team ignores and one they rely on comes down to how well you write them.
An agent’s instructions tell it what to do, how to do it, and what the result should look like. Think of it like onboarding a new team member: you wouldn’t just give them access to your tools and say “figure it out.” You’d explain what matters, how decisions get made, and what good output looks like.
Start with the Role
Before getting into specifics, define what your agent is. The role shapes everything: tone, priorities, how it handles ambiguity.
- Support agent: “You help customers resolve issues quickly and professionally. You prioritize their experience over everything else.”
- Sales assistant: “You’re here to accelerate deals. Be direct, action-oriented, and focused on moving conversations forward.”
These aren’t just labels. They change how the agent interprets the rest of your instructions.
Be Specific
Vague instructions produce inconsistent results. “Be helpful” and “write good emails” mean different things every time. Instead, be concrete about what you want:
| Vague | Specific |
|---|---|
| ”Respond to customer questions" | "Check if the customer has an active account. If they do, answer their question and offer to escalate. If they don’t, direct them to sign up." |
| "Create reports" | "Pull the last 30 days of data. Summarize the top 3 trends. List any blockers. Keep it under 200 words. Use bullet points.” |
The more specific you are, the less the agent has to guess.
If you want your agent to format responses a certain way, include an example in the instructions. Concrete examples clarify what abstract descriptions can’t.
Improve Based on What Breaks
Your instructions won’t be perfect on day one. When your agent makes a mistake, don’t just correct it in the moment. Update the instructions so it doesn’t happen again.
A useful trick: ask the agent directly, “How should I update your instructions to prevent this next time?” It will suggest a specific change you can refine and add.
Over time, your instructions evolve through this cycle:
- Start simple: get the basics down and deploy
- Test with your team: see how they actually use it
- Watch what breaks: identify gaps and edge cases
- Refine: update instructions based on real feedback