Working with AI
Prompts
Inspect the built-in summary instructions and understand the limits of the web prompt editor.
Prompts are the instructions used to request a particular kind of summary. The Prompts screen lets you inspect the built-in wording, edit a field, and ask for a rewrite of that wording.
There is an important limit in the web app: edits in this screen stay in the open editor. They are not saved for later and do not change the instructions used by summary generation. Summary runs use the built-in instructions. Keep wording you want to retain somewhere else before closing the screen.
Open Prompts
There are two entry points:
- Open Settings, then Summariser prompts under Prompts.
- Open Summary options from a node's Summarize action, then choose Edit prompts.
The second route opens Prompts above the options. Close it to return to the choices you were making. Escape also closes that panel.
The six instruction cards
Each card has guidance you can type into and an expandable Fixed part — the format the app parses. The fixed part is read-only. It describes the response structure expected by the relevant result view.
| Card | What the built-in instruction requests |
|---|---|
| Project summary | A whole-project synthesis grounded in the supplied notes, divided into the Project View sections. |
| Cluster - quick | One prose paragraph describing a cluster. |
| Cluster - deep | A contribution block for each supplied note. |
| Note summary - overview | Prose about what the supplied material establishes. |
| Note summary - key points | A list of supported points, most important first. |
| Note summary - action items | Actions supported by the text, without inventing steps when none are established. |
The Summary choices in Summary options select the corresponding note-summary instruction. Detail adds the requested response length. The cluster deep control opens those same Summary options on its root; its label does not provide a separate prompt builder.
Expanding the fixed part is useful when comparing a prose result with a list, or understanding why Project View expects named sections. Editing guidance in a card does not edit that fixed format.
Try Improve for AI
Improve for AI sends the card's current guidance for a rewrite. The request asks to preserve the intent while making the wording easier for a model to follow. It replaces the guidance field if a different answer returns.
This action requires a signed-in account with hosted AI access enabled. Its allowance and service availability can prevent a request. Reading the instruction cards does not run that request.
During the request, the button reads Improving…. Only one improvement can run from this editor at a time. Its work also appears in the canvas's summary progress area, where it can be cancelled.
After a successful rewrite, Undo restores the wording immediately before that rewrite. Reset to the default restores the built-in guidance and clears that Undo option. A changed card is marked edited after its guidance is committed by leaving the field. Leaving the field empty restores the default wording.
If the request returns no change, the card says No improvement came back. Other failures appear on the affected card. The existing wording remains available when improvement fails.
Improving wording is an AI request even though the editor does not apply that wording to later generations. You can inspect the fixed instructions without choosing Improve for AI. For actual summary controls, see Summaries and Project View; for hosted AI access and allowances, see your Colli account.