AI chat can follow standing instructions, so you do not have to repeat your house rules at the start of every conversation. There are two kinds. Both are optional.
Workspace instructions | My AI chat instructions | |
|---|---|---|
Written by | The workspace owner | Each person, for themselves |
Applies to | Every member's chat in the workspace | Only you, in the current workspace |
Where | Settings → Workspace | Settings → My settings |
Visible to | Everyone in the workspace | Only you |
Workspace instructions
Open Settings in the sidebar. It lands on the Workspace tab; AI chat instructions is the section below Members. Type the instructions and press Save.
Use them for conventions the whole team shares:
Answer in Russian. Tasks live on the Sprint board, and a task is done when it is in the Done column. Meeting notes are tagged meeting and nested under the Meetings note.
Only the owner can change them. Members see the same text in the same place, read-only, with Only the workspace owner can do this underneath. If the owner has not written any, members do not see the section at all.
My AI chat instructions
Open Settings → My settings. My AI chat instructions is the last section, below Page layout. Type, and press Save.
Use them for your own style: keep answers short, use bullet points, explain the reasoning, always link the notes you used.
They are saved per workspace. What you save applies to the workspace you are in at the time. Switch workspaces and the box shows the instructions for that one, which start empty. If you leave a workspace or are removed from it, your instructions for it are deleted along with your membership.
When the two disagree
The workspace's instructions win. The order of priority is:
AI chat's own guidelines
The workspace instructions
Your instructions
Only the conflicting part loses. If the owner wrote answer in French and you wrote answer in German and use bullet points, chat answers in French — in bullet points.
What instructions cannot change
The chat's own rules. Instructions cannot change how note and tag links are written, the rules for using its tools, or the confirmations those rules require. Chat still names a note and asks before moving it to the trash.
Access. A member's chat runs with that member's own access. No instruction lets it reach notes they cannot open.
Other assistants. Instructions apply to AI chat inside Notez. An assistant connected over the MCP server, such as Claude Code or Cursor, uses its own system prompt — set equivalent rules there.
Details
Each set holds up to 2,000 characters. A counter under the box shows how many you have used.
Leading and trailing spaces are trimmed. Saving an empty box removes the instructions.
They apply from the next message you send, including in a conversation that is already open.
Both sets are sent with every message, so they count toward the workspace owner's monthly chat tokens, like the rest of a member's chat usage. See Plans, limits, and billing.
If the owner edits the workspace instructions while you have settings open, the new text shows once the settings refresh.
If chat seems to ignore them
Check the workspace. Your instructions belong to the workspace you saved them in.
Check for a conflict. If the workspace instructions say otherwise, they win.
Check what you asked for. A request to change links, tool rules, or confirmations is ignored by design.
Be concrete. Tasks are the cards in the Sprint board's To Do and Doing columns works better than know our workflow.
For everything else AI chat can do, see Using AI chat.