Instruction Style

Write and revise agent-facing prose so an agent reads the right priority, understands why each constraint exists, and does not apply a rule where it does not fit.

Misreading is not the failure mode you are preventing. Agents parse English fine. Instruction files fail three other ways: the agent misprioritizes (two rules apply and nothing says which wins), it routes around an opaque rule (the rule's purpose is invisible, so a clever workaround looks compliant), and it over-applies (a rule written for one case gets used everywhere). Optimize against those three.

When to apply