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Standing instructions live in an agent’s operating prompt — its persistent rules for tone, format, what to always include, what to skip. Unlike a message (one-off) or a decision (a fact/choice about the work), standing instructions change how the agent itself behaves.

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Steps

  1. Open the agent from your Orbits list.
  2. Open its Instructions (operating prompt).
  3. Edit the rules — add a tone guideline, a formatting requirement, a source to always cite, a thing to never do.
  4. Save. The agent reads the updated prompt on its very next run. No redeploy needed.

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Behavioral rule vs. work decision

This is the distinction that trips people up:
  • Standing instruction → how the agent operates: “Always write in a concise, no-jargon voice.” Lives in the prompt.
  • Decision → a choice about the work: “Quote the $49 plan.” Lives in Decisions.
If an agent keeps making the same behavioral mistake, fix its standing instructions — filing it as a decision won’t change how it writes.

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Under the hood

Agents fetch their current instructions via orbit_get_instructions and update them via orbit_update_self. Because the prompt lives in Orbit, your edits go live immediately on the next run.

Send a one-off message

For temporary, single-run instructions.