Instructions

Instructions are reusable pieces of content — guidelines, rules, or prompts — that admins author once and assign to one or more servers. When an agent connects, instructions are delivered automatically through the MCP protocol, ensuring consistent behavior across your organization.

Delivery Modes

Each instruction has a delivery mode that controls how agents receive its content:

Mode	Behavior	Agent Action Required	Best For
System	Included in the MCP initialize response automatically	None — agents receive it at connection time	Always-on guidelines (coding standards, compliance rules)
Prompt	Registered as an MCP prompt that agents can discover and retrieve	Agent sends prompts/list then prompts/get	On-demand references (templates, checklists)

Instruction Lifecycle

Instructions follow a three-stage status lifecycle:

DRAFT  ──→  PUBLISHED  ──→  ARCHIVED

• Draft: Work-in-progress. Visible in the UI but not delivered to agents.
• Published: Active. Delivered to agents connected to assigned servers.
• Archived: Retired. No longer delivered to agents but preserved for history.

Only published instructions reach agents. Changing an instruction back to draft or archiving it immediately stops delivery.

Creating an Instruction

1. Navigate to Instructions in the main navigation
2. Click New Instruction
3. Fill in the details:
   • Name: A descriptive title (e.g., "Code Review Guidelines")
   • Description: Brief explanation of the instruction's purpose
   • Delivery Mode: Choose System or Prompt
   • Tags: Optional comma-separated tags for organization (e.g., "security, compliance")
4. Write or paste the instruction content using the markdown editor — use the write/preview toggle to preview the rendered markdown
5. Click Create Instruction

The instruction is created in Draft status with an initial version (v1) created automatically.

Publishing

To make an instruction available to agents:

1. Open the instruction's detail page
2. Click the Publish button, or go to the Settings tab and change the status to Published
3. Confirm the action

The initial version is created automatically when you first create the instruction. Publishing changes the status so agents start receiving the content.

Versioning

Instructions support versioning so you can track changes over time.

Creating a New Version

1. Open a published instruction's detail page
2. Edit the content
3. Click Save as New Version
4. Add a change message describing what changed

Each version is an immutable snapshot. The instruction's current content always reflects the latest version unless an assignment pins to a specific version.

Version History

View all versions of an instruction in the Versions tab on the instruction detail page. Each entry shows the version number, change message, and timestamp.

Assigning to Servers

Instructions take effect when assigned to servers.

1. Open the instruction's detail page
2. Go to the Assignments tab
3. Click Assign to Server
4. Select a server
5. The assignment tracks the latest version by default

Version Pinning

• Track latest (default): The server always receives the instruction's current content. Publishing a new version updates all tracking assignments automatically.
• Pin to version (API only): Via the API, assignments can be pinned to a specific version so the server receives that version's content regardless of newer versions. The UI currently assigns in track-latest mode only.

Managing Instructions

Settings

On the instruction's detail page, the Settings tab lets you edit:

• Name and Description
• Status (Draft, Published, or Archived)
• Delivery Mode (System or Prompt)
• Tags

Deleting an Instruction

1. Open the instruction's detail page
2. Go to the Settings tab
3. Click Delete Instruction
4. Confirm the action

Deleting an instruction permanently removes the instruction along with all its versions and assignments. This action cannot be undone.

How Agents Receive Instructions

System Mode

System instructions are concatenated and included in the MCP server's initialization. When an agent connects, it receives the combined instructions automatically — similar to a system prompt. No action is needed from the agent.

Prompt Mode

Prompt instructions are registered as MCP prompts with a slugified name (e.g., "Code Review Guidelines" becomes code_review_guidelines). Agents can:

1. Send prompts/list to discover available prompts
2. Send prompts/get with the prompt name to retrieve the content

Programmatic Management

Instructions can also be managed programmatically through the organization-wide MCP endpoint. AI agents connected to your organization's management endpoint can use these tools:

Tool	Description
list_instructions	List all instructions, optionally filtered by status
search_instructions	Search instructions by keyword (matches name, description, tags)
get_instruction	Get instruction details with current version content
create_instruction	Create a new instruction (starts as Draft)
update_instruction	Update metadata (name, description, status, delivery mode, tags)
create_instruction_version	Create a new version of an instruction's content
assign_instruction	Assign an instruction to a server (with optional version pinning)
unassign_instruction	Remove an instruction assignment from a server

These tools enable automation workflows — for example, an agent could create and publish instructions based on a team's documentation, or assign instructions to newly created servers automatically.

Best Practices

• Keep instructions focused. One instruction per topic makes assignment and versioning easier to manage.
• Use system mode for always-on guidance. Compliance rules, coding standards, and safety guidelines work best as system instructions since agents receive them automatically.
• Use prompts for on-demand references. Templates, checklists, and detailed procedures that agents only need occasionally are better as prompt instructions.
• Version before major changes. Create a new version before significant edits so you can roll back via version pinning if needed.
• Review assignments after archiving. When you archive an instruction, its assignments stop delivering content. Check affected servers to ensure coverage.