A copy-paste prompt that helps an agent write and pressure-test a set of tenets.
Tenets are a few carefully articulated guiding principles for any endeavor. They align a group on a vision, simplify decision-making, and distinguish welcome behavior from unwelcome behavior. They are tiebreakers when the call cannot be settled with data. Principle and tenet are the same word.
The prompt embeds three things so the agent does not have to go fetch them:
- The tenets for tenets (unless you know better ones).
- A strong subset of Tig's writing voice.
- Bedside manners: treat the human as smart and high-judgment, prefer doing over instructing, ask one question when blocked, never leave them at a cliff.
Live: https://kindel.com/tenets/. There is no app. Copy prompt.md into any agent, then describe the endeavor or paste a draft set.
- Copy
prompt.md. - Paste it into any agent.
- Tell it the endeavor, or paste the current list.
If the list is a pile of slogans, a good run will say so and fix it. If the input is too thin to take a stand, it should ask one question and wait.
A working set in the same shape as the tenets for tenets (numbered list, bold title. then the body on the same line), a short editor note on each trade-off, a review against the nine rules, and a few debate questions the room should actually fight about.
The set ends with "unless you know better ones." That is not decoration. Tenets evolve.