Standing instructions save you from repeating yourself. Write your preferences once, such as your coding style or how you like answers formatted, and every new agent session starts with them. Agents can also remember what they learn about you and reuse it in later chats.
Instructions are added when a session starts. A chat that is already running keeps the instructions it started with, so your changes apply to new chats.
Write instructions for every chat
- Open Settings and go to Instructions, in the Agents group.
- Choose the section:
- Chats applies to your chats in Code projects, in Work in Unstoppable Code, and in Orchestrator.
- Workflows applies to the agent steps in your workflows.
- Type your instructions in Overall instructions. They apply to every session in that section.
Add instructions for some sessions only
Scoped instructions apply only when a session matches what you choose. For example, you might give Codex chats different instructions from Claude chats.
- In the section, find Scoped instructions and select Add.
- Type the instructions.
- Choose a mode:
- Append adds them after the overall instructions.
- Replace uses them instead of the overall instructions. If more than one Replace matches, the first one wins.
- Choose when they apply. You can pick a Harness (Claude, Codex, or, on macOS and Windows, Ollama), specific models, and, for Chats, a Project type (Cowork, Code, or Orchestrator). The instructions apply when a session matches any option you pick. Leave everything empty to apply them to every session.
Use the arrows beside a scoped instruction to change its order, which matters when more than one Replace matches. Select the trash icon to delete one.
Agents you save in Customize carry their own instructions too. See Create and share custom agents.
Give a project its own instructions
A Code project with more than one repository has its own instructions, shared by every worktree in it.
- In the sidebar, open the project's menu and choose Project settings.
- Go to Instructions.
- Type your instructions. If the page is empty, select Initialize to start from a template.
Code projects with one repository don't have this page. Work projects have an Instructions page too. See Organize a Work project.
Use your Cursor rules
If a repository has Cursor rules, you can use them in new chats. You review each rule first, and the repository stays unchanged. Open Settings, go to General, and select Review Cursor rules under Get started. When you add a project that has Cursor rules, the app also offers Review Cursor rules in a Cursor rules found notification.
Let chats remember
With memory on, agents save what they learn on this computer and reuse it across your chats.
- Open Settings and go to Memory, in the Agents group.
- Turn on Use local memory.
- Optional: under Memory model, choose the model that sorts and rebuilds memories.
Your memories lists what has been saved about you, and you can search it. Select Open folder beside Memory folder to see the files on your computer. Each project also keeps its own memories in its Memory panel.