Prompts handle the immediate request
A prompt is the instruction or question in the current interaction. It should carry the immediate goal, current evidence, constraints, and requested output.
Do not rely on a one-off prompt to preserve a process for the future. Once the procedure becomes repeatable, move it into a skill or a project instruction file that can be reviewed and versioned.
- Current goal
- Current context
- Current constraints
- Requested output
Skills preserve procedures
A skill describes how to perform a recurring class of work. It can route between tools, templates, references, and verification steps while remaining separate from personal facts.
Skills should not become databases of customer records, credentials, or temporary task history. Keep procedures reusable and keep sensitive source material in the systems designed to protect it.
- Repeatable procedure
- Tool-routing guidance
- Templates and checks
- No embedded secrets
Memory preserves durable context
Memory is for stable preferences, facts, and conventions that reduce repeated explanation. It is not a task queue and should not become a raw transcript dump.
Project-specific source truth belongs with the project. Temporary progress belongs in the current session or task system. Credentials belong in environment variables or a secret manager, never in memory.
- Stable preferences
- Long-lived environment facts
- Project source truth stays in project files
- Secrets stay outside the model context
The agent coordinates the layers
The agent interprets the prompt, consults relevant memory and skills, and uses the tools its environment exposes. Its capabilities depend on the model, host, permissions, and current evidence.
A safe setup makes those boundaries visible. Ask what the agent can read, what it can change, what reaches an external service, and which decisions always return to a person.
- Agent: coordinator
- Tool: capability
- Skill: procedure
- Memory: durable context
Build the controlled foundation first.
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