Paste this prompt into your AI right now. Disable your custom instructions first, answer whatever it asks you honestly, and see what comes out.
That’s the whole challenge.
A user on r/PromptEngineering built a structured interview prompt that figures out how you actually want your AI to talk to you. Not your job title. Not vague stuff like “be concise.” Real things: do you want pushback or just compliance? Flowing paragraphs or bullet points? What should it never do?
It then writes your custom instructions from scratch based on your answers.
Most people set up their custom instructions once, forget about them, and wonder why their AI still sounds like it’s reading from an HR handbook two years later. This prompt fixes that. It treats you like someone with specific preferences worth caring about, because you do. And it forces you to actually articulate those preferences instead of hoping your AI picks them up from context clues and vibes.
🔧 How to run it
- Open ChatGPT, Claude, or whichever tool you use most
- Disable your current custom instructions (Settings > Personalization)
- Copy the full prompt from the original Reddit post (linked below)
- Paste it and answer the questions as specifically as you can
- Choose quick track (5 min) or deep track (15 min)
- Copy the final output and paste it as your new custom instructions
One thing worth knowing before you start: the prompt is conversational. It asks follow-up questions based on your answers, so it’s not just a form you fill out. More like a short interview with someone who actually wants to understand how your brain works. If you answer “I prefer bullet points,” it might come back and ask what kinds of content deserve bullets versus paragraphs. That’s the level of specificity it’s operating at.
If you’re on Claude, go to Profile and look for “Set Claude’s behavior.” On ChatGPT it’s Settings, then Personalization, then Custom Instructions. Clear them or turn them off before you paste the prompt in. Running this on top of your existing instructions creates conflicting signals and muddies the output.
📊 What the output actually tells you
The interview covers tone, detail level, formatting, how much it should push back on you, how it handles uncertainty, and what it should never do. It writes your instructions in first person, sized for your specific tool.
Fair warning: community reactions were split. Some called it bloated. Others said it’s too generic to work well on any specific platform.
Honest take: it depends entirely on how specific you are with your answers. Vague input produces generic output. Specific input produces something genuinely useful.
Here’s what that actually looks like in practice. If you answer “I like direct responses,” you’ll get instructions like “be direct and concise.” Useless. But if you say “I hate when my AI opens with ‘Great question!’ or restates what I just said before answering,” you’ll get something that actually changes the behavior. The gap between those two answers is where the whole method lives or dies.
The pushback question is the one most people under-answer. Do you want your AI to challenge your assumptions, or do you want it to execute what you ask without friction? Neither is wrong. But if you skip this, you’ll keep getting inconsistent behavior that feels random. Some days it argues with you. Some days it just agrees and moves on. Locking in your actual preference on this one question alone is worth the five minutes.
💡 Extra tips
- Be specific about what annoys you. “I hate long intros before the actual answer” beats “be concise” every time
- Pick the deep track if you use AI for work daily. The 15 minutes pays back fast
- After you get the output, trim anything that feels obvious. Shorter custom instructions usually work better than long ones
- Run it again every few months. Your preferences change as you use AI more
- Test the new instructions on a real task before committing to them. Paste in a work email, a brief, a type of question you ask often. If the response doesn’t feel noticeably different, your answers during the interview were probably too vague. Go back and redo it with more detail
- If you use multiple AI tools, run the prompt separately on each one. What works as instructions for Claude might need to be phrased differently for ChatGPT. The models interpret context in slightly different ways, and a one-size-fits-all version will feel flat on at least one of them
🚀 Try it today
Run the 5-minute quick track right now. Worst case you get a rough draft to edit. Best case your AI starts responding like it actually gets you.
And if you’ve been putting off setting up custom instructions because it felt like too much work, this is the shortcut. Someone already built the interview. You just have to show up and answer honestly.
Full prompt in the original post: r/PromptEngineering
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will my custom instructions actually change AI behavior, or just make it role-play?
That’s the key question. Generic instructions like “be helpful” often just make the AI adopt a persona without changing how it actually works. The real test: do your resulting instructions meaningfully change what the AI does on real tasks? If it feels like the AI is just playing a character, your instructions are probably too abstract and need more specificity.
Q: Should I create different custom instructions for ChatGPT vs Claude vs other platforms?
Yeah, ideally. Each platform speaks a different “dialect” of LLM language and has its own quirks and strengths. A one-size-fits-all instruction set will work okay everywhere, but better results come from tailoring to each platform’s best practices. It’s worth experimenting to see what sticks.
Q: How do I know if my instructions are actually useful or just vague fluff?
Test them. Give your instructions to the AI alongside a real task and see if the output actually changes compared to using no instructions. Actionable instructions are specific, “always include code examples with explanations”, not abstract, “be more creative.” If you can’t see a clear difference, they probably need work.
Q: Isn’t the interview process too long?
Depends on what you value. A detailed interview reduces ambiguity and produces more specific instructions. Some people love that; others just want something quick. The honest answer: try the full process first, see what quality you get, then decide if you can trim it down without losing results.
Prompt for building custom instructions.
by u/heavychevy3500 in PromptEngineering