Change System Instruction
Each agent in the Mansa system has a system instruction. This is the foundational prompt that sets its role, operating constraints, output format, and decision-making guidelines. The system instruction is the most powerful lever in the system: changes here affect every run the agent makes until it’s changed again.
What the System Instruction Controls
Section titled “What the System Instruction Controls”- The agent’s role and identity within the Mansa system
- The output format for structured data (e.g. how Attio records should be shaped)
- Hard constraints (things the agent must never do)
- How the agent handles ambiguous or missing information
- How the agent escalates to Mansa (the coordinator) when stuck
The Four Agent System Instructions
Section titled “The Four Agent System Instructions”| Agent | Primary Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Mansa (Coordinator) | Orchestrate the daily and weekly workflows, delegate to workers, produce the digest |
| Email Processor | Classify, deduplicate, extract, and draft a pitch deck request when one is missing |
| Meeting Agent | Parse meeting notes, extract decisions, update Attio, draft the recap email |
| Dreamer | Compact memory stores without introducing new lessons or losing real ones |
When to Update a System Instruction
Section titled “When to Update a System Instruction”- The agent is consistently making a class of mistakes that rubric or memory updates alone can’t fix
- A hard constraint needs to be added or changed (for thesis or voice changes, update
about_bkr_capital.mdinstead) - A new step needs to be added to an agent’s core workflow
- The output format for Attio records needs to change
How to Update a System Instruction
Section titled “How to Update a System Instruction”Step 1: Edit the Instruction in SharePoint
Section titled “Step 1: Edit the Instruction in SharePoint”The system instruction source files live in the Mansa System Instructions SharePoint folder. Open the file for the agent you want to update, make your changes, and save in SharePoint before touching the Claude Console.
Step 2: Open the Claude Console
Section titled “Step 2: Open the Claude Console”Go to platform.claude.com/dashboard and sign in.
In the left sidebar, expand Managed Agents and click Agents.
Step 3: Select the Agent
Section titled “Step 3: Select the Agent”Find the agent whose instruction you want to update and click on it to open its configuration.
Step 4: Update the System Prompt
Section titled “Step 4: Update the System Prompt”Locate the System prompt field, select all the existing content, and replace it by pasting in the updated text from SharePoint.
When writing or editing instructions, follow these principles:
- Be explicit about constraints. Vague instructions produce inconsistent behaviour.
- Use numbered steps for multi-stage workflows so the agent has a clear sequence to follow
- Prefer concrete examples over abstract rules where possible
- Always specify what the agent should do when a step fails or information is missing
Step 5: Save and Verify
Section titled “Step 5: Save and Verify”Save the updated instruction. To verify it’s behaving correctly, you can trigger a manual run from the Deployments section and review the session output before the next scheduled run fires.
Coordination Between Agents
Section titled “Coordination Between Agents”Mansa (the coordinator) passes context to worker agents at the start of each delegated task. If you change Mansa’s system instruction, verify that the context it passes is still compatible with what the worker agents expect. If you change a worker agent’s system instruction, verify that Mansa’s instructions for how to invoke that worker still apply.
Rollback
Section titled “Rollback”If a system instruction change causes problems, contact Adullam Technologies to revert to a previous version via the Claude Console API.