Give a collection standing instructions

Standing instructions are the brief a new teammate would get on their first day, written down once: what belongs in this collection, how memos are named, which properties to set, what not to touch. People read them. An AI connected to Fieldwerk is handed them before it creates, edits or files anything in the collection, and is told to follow them. That is what makes your AI file things the way your team does instead of the way it guesses.

You can write instructions at three levels, and they add up:

• Workspace instructions apply everywhere in the workspace.

• Collection instructions apply to everything in that collection.

• Notebook instructions apply to that notebook.

Write a collection's instructions

1. Open the collection and open its settings pane: click Collection settings at the top, or choose Manage collection from the collection's menu.

2. Open the Instructions tab.

3. Click Add instructions, write them, and click Save. To change them later, click the text to edit it.

You can also add them when you create the collection: click Add instructions for agents in the New collection dialog.

Earlier versions are kept, with who changed them and when, so a rule that quietly changed can be traced.

Write a notebook's instructions

Open the notebook's menu (Notebook options), choose Edit details, and fill in Instructions.

Write the workspace's instructions

Workspace owners and admins can open Workspace settings, go to General, and fill in Instructions. This is the place for rules that hold everywhere, such as how collections are named or what not to restructure.

What good instructions say

Keep them short and specific. Say what belongs, how to name and file things, which properties to set, and anything an AI must not do. For example, for a collection of client meeting notes:

One memo per client meeting, titled with the date and client name. Set status to Draft until the notes are checked. Put action items in a task list at the end. Never delete a memo; archive it.

Or, for a help site, the kind of brief a writer would follow:

One page per question. Short answer first, then the detail. Plain English, NZ spelling, no em-dashes. Name controls exactly as the app shows them, in bold. Link to other pages instead of repeating them. Edit in place; never create a replacement memo.

A good habit: write them for someone who has never seen the collection. If a new teammate could follow them, so can your AI.

Have your AI do it

Once your AI is connected (see Connect Claude to Fieldwerk or Connect ChatGPT to Fieldwerk), ask it to draft the brief from what's already there:

In Fieldwerk, show me my collections and ask which one. Read its memos, then write standing instructions so every new memo there follows the same shape as the best ones already in it. Show me the draft before you save it.

Add one rule without rewriting the rest:

In Fieldwerk, add a rule to one of my collections' instructions, keeping everything else as it is. Show me my collections and ask which one, and ask me what the rule is. Show me the change before you save it.