Write a useful task brief

A useful task brief tells an agent what success looks like and how you will judge the result. You do not need to design the agent team yourself.

Include five things

Part	Example
Outcome	Identify ten companies that could buy our onboarding software.
Context	We sell to US software companies with an in-house customer-success team.
Sources and access	Use public company pages and the attached customer profile.
Deliverable	Save a table with website, fit evidence, source URL, score, and unknowns.
Limits and review point	Research only. Stop after ten results; do not contact anyone.

Copy this structure

Goal:
[The result I need and why.]

Context:
[Audience, company, existing work, definitions, and exclusions.]

Inputs:
[Files, links, connected account, and sources to use.]

Output:
[Format, required fields, where to save it, and how I will assess it.]

Limits:
[Batch size, time period, permitted actions, and things to avoid.]

Finish:
[When to stop, what to summarize, and what needs my review.]

Separate research, drafting, and sending

Each is a different instruction. “Draft a reply” and “send a reply” have different consequences. Name the intended account and recipient when authorizing a send, and give a concrete stopping point. A request for approval in a prompt is an instruction to the agent, not a universal technical lock on all tools. Review the full template and the tools you enable before running it.

Make recurring tasks safe to repeat

A repeated task should explain how to recognize work already completed:

Check the three specified company news pages for changes since the
last successful run. Save new items with source URL and first-seen date.
Skip URLs already recorded. If nothing changed, report that briefly.
Do not send email or update external systems.

Test once before adding a schedule. Avoid an instruction such as “keep doing this” without defining the interval and what counts as new work.

Correct the result precisely

Instead of “this is wrong,” point to an example and a rule:

The third company sells to agencies, not to our target audience.
Exclude agency-focused vendors and recheck the list using that rule.
Preserve the rows that still qualify.

For context you want reused, consider memory. For a repeatable procedure, use a skill. A task-specific instruction usually belongs in that colony’s chat.

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Core concepts

Colony workspace

Inbox and senders

Guides

Configuration

Account

Write a useful task brief

Include five things

Copy this structure

Separate research, drafting, and sending

Make recurring tasks safe to repeat

Correct the result precisely

​Include five things

​Copy this structure

​Separate research, drafting, and sending

​Make recurring tasks safe to repeat

​Correct the result precisely

Include five things

Copy this structure

Separate research, drafting, and sending

Make recurring tasks safe to repeat

Correct the result precisely