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When working in CometAI, you’ll encounter three tools designed to make your experience smoother: Custom Instructions, Prompt Templates and Follow-Up Buttons. While they may sound similar, each serves a unique purpose. This article explains what they are, how they work, and how they differ so you know when to use each one.
Custom Instructions are rules or guidelines you set at the start of a conversation. They tell the model how you want it to behave throughout the entire interaction. Think of them as a way to “prime” the model to consistently get the style, tone, or format you prefer. Once applied, Custom Instructions remain active and influence every response in that conversation.
Example
- Always return answers as a PowerPoint outline.
- Use concise bullet points instead of long paragraphs.
- Maintain a professional tone in all responses.
Prompt Templates are pre-written prompts with placeholders that you can quickly reuse. They save time by eliminating repetitive typing and allow you to create consistent prompts that can still be customized for each specific use.
Example
- Summarize the following document in 3 bullet points: {{Document_Text}}.
- When you use this template, you will be prompted to fill in the {{Document_Text}} placeholder with your content.
- Prompt Templates are easy to share with your team and can include attached Custom Instructions for more control.
Follow-Up Buttons are one-click shortcuts that allow you to run predefined instructions within a conversation. Unlike Prompt Templates that start a new conversation, these buttons are designed to streamline repetitive follow-up actions on existing content (e.g., reformatting or summarizing).
Their key feature is the ability to be contextual. You can set a Follow-Up Button to appear only in conversations that have specific tags, keeping your workspace clean and relevant. If no tags are required, the button will appear in every conversation.
Example
- A button that reformats a response into Markdown.
- A button that summarizes a long answer into bullet points.
- Use Custom Instructions when... you need to define the AI's behavior, tone, or format for an entire conversation.
- Use Prompt Templates when... you find yourself repeatedly typing similar prompts and want a reusable and shareable solution.
- Use Follow-Up Buttons when... you want to create one-click shortcuts for common follow-up tasks, especially when you want those actions to appear only in specific contexts.
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Feature
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Custom Instructions
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Prompt Templates
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Follow-Up Button
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What it is
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Rules applied at the start of a conversation
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Pre-written prompts with placeholders
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One-click shortcuts for follow-up actions
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Purpose
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Tailor model behavior across responses
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Reuse and customize prompts efficiently
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Streamline repetitive, contextual follow-up actions
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Persistence
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Stays active throughout the conversation
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Runs once when executed
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Appears when required tags are present (or always, if none are set)
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1Assistants icon — opens assistant settings and configuration
2Prompt Template — create a new reusable prompt template
Define Custom Instructions
- Purpose: Shape the assistant's behavior throughout the onboarding flow.
- Template Name: Friendly Onboarding
- Prompt: Act as a friendly and helpful onboarding assistant. Always provide clear next steps and offer support resources. Use a welcoming tone and avoid technical jargon.
- Conversation Tag: onboard
1Name — label used to identify this custom instruction
2Prompt — the actual instruction text applied to the assistant
3Conversation Tags — keywords to tag the conversation which used the current custom instruction
4Template Type — set to Custom Instructions so this applies automatically to conversations
5Save — creates the custom instruction
Create a Prompt Template
- Purpose: Launch the onboarding conversation and tag it for follow-up actions.
- Template Name: Start Employee Onboarding
- Custom Instructions: Friendly Onboarding
- Prompt: Welcome to the team! Let's begin your onboarding process. Please confirm your start date and department.
- Conversation Tag: onboard
1Name — label used to identify this prompt template
2Custom Instructions — optionally link a saved Custom Instruction to this template
3Prompt — the message text this template will send
4Conversation Tags — keywords to tag the conversation which used this current prompt template.
5Template Type — set to Prompt Template so it sends this exact message as a shortcut
6Save — creates the prompt template
Add Follow-Up Buttons
- Purpose: Provide quick-access actions based on the onboarding tag.
- Button Label: Watch Training Video
- Prompt: Please watch this introductory video: [link]
- Required Tag: onboard
1Name — label used to identify this follow-up button
2Prompt — the message sent when the button is clicked
3Conversation Tags — keywords to tag the conversation which used the current follow-up button
4Required Tags — the button only appears in conversations carrying this tag
5Template Type — set to Follow-up Button so it shows as a clickable suggestion
6Save — creates the follow-up button
Together, these three features provide a flexible toolkit for interacting with CometAI.
- Custom Instructions shape how the AI behaves in a conversation.
- Prompt Templates give you reusable prompts with flexibility for each run.
- Follow-Up Buttons provide one-click shortcuts to streamline repetitive tasks.
Disclaimer: CometAI Conversations, Prompt Templates, Custom Instructions, Follow‑up Buttons are currently stored locally on the user’s browser/device, regardless of conversation storage or sync settings. As a result, these features do not automatically synchronize across different browsers or devices. If users want to reuse them when switching browsers or devices, they should save their prompts, conversations and instructions externally (for example, in a Word document) and recreate them as needed. This is a known issue, and the CometAI team is actively working to address it in a future release.