The difference between an AI agent that wows you and one that disappoints is almost always the brief — how you describe the job. The good news: briefing a minion is a skill you can learn in five minutes, and it pays off on every task afterwards. Here's the method.
1
State the outcome, not the task
Tell your minion what done looks like, not just the action. Instead of
research competitors, say give me a table of our top 5 competitors with their pricing, positioning and one weakness each. A clear finish line is the single biggest driver of a good result.2
Give it the context it can't guess
Your minion knows nothing about your business until you tell it. Add the essentials: who you are, who the customer is, your tone, and any constraints (budget, deadline, must-avoids). One or two sentences is plenty —
We're a Singapore café; keep replies warm and under 60 words.3
Show one example of 'good'
If you have a sample — a past email you liked, a competitor's page, a format — paste or attach it. One concrete example teaches the agent more than a paragraph of description. You can attach files right in the chat.
4
Set the guardrails
Tell it what not to do and when to check with you:
Draft the reply but don't send it until I approve, or If the customer asks for a refund, escalate to me. Guardrails let you hand off more with confidence.5
Iterate in the chat
Treat the first result as a draft. Reply with specific fixes —
shorter, drop point 3, more formal — and your minion adjusts. It remembers the thread, so you build on previous turns instead of starting over.A quick template you can reuse:
"You are helping [business]. I need [outcome] for [audience]. Context: [1–2 facts]. Constraints: [tone / length / deadline]. Here's an example of good: [paste]. Don't [guardrail] without checking with me."
Once you've briefed your minion well, put it to work on a real job — see customer support or invoicing, or browse all the jobs an agent can do.