Writing a mission: goal, limits, finish line

An agent does what you ask, including what you phrased badly. With a chat, a vague request gets a vague answer. With an agent, it can mean twenty minutes of useless actions, or an action you didn't want.

The four blocks of a good mission

• The goal: the expected result, concrete. Not "look at flights to Lisbon", but "find the three cheapest Lyon to Lisbon return flights from 10 to 14 May, cabin bag included".
• The context: what it needs to know that you already know. Where the files are, what format you prefer, what has already been tried.
• The limits: what it's allowed to do, and what is forbidden. "You can browse the sites, you don't book anything, you don't create any account."
• The finish line: how it knows it's done, and in what form it hands over the work. "You stop when you have three checked options; you give me a table with the price, the times and the link."

Planning for surprises

Tell it what to do when it gets stuck: "If a site asks you to log in or pay, stop and ask me. If a piece of information is missing, note it rather than guess." Without this instruction, an agent tends to improvise to get to the end.

A complete example

"Goal: prepare the guest list for the end-of-year dinner. Context: the replies are in the emails received since 1 November, with "Dinner" in the subject. Limits: you read the emails, you don't send any and you don't delete anything. Finish: a table with the name, the answer (yes, no, no reply) and dietary needs; flag the cases where the answer isn't clear."