Almost any AI tool can answer a short request. The harder problem is getting a result that another person can review, reuse, and reproduce. Teams solve that problem by using one shared prompt structure instead of relying on clever wording.

In Siesta AI, reusable agent-level instructions and their versions are documented in Agent Prompts. For a one-off request, apply the same structure in Chat.

Use Five Explicit Parts

Build business prompts from five parts:

Part	What to specify	Why it matters
Role	The relevant expertise and responsibility	Sets the perspective and expected level of judgment
Context	Goal, audience, background, sources, and known limitations	Replaces the questions a capable colleague would ask first
Task	The exact action and the steps needed	Turns a broad topic into an executable request
Format	Output type, fields, order, and length	Makes the result easier to verify and reuse
Constraints	Source boundaries, prohibited actions, policy rules, and treatment of unknowns	Reduces unsupported assumptions and unsafe output

Most weak results come from requirements that were never stated. “Draft an email” may secretly mean “keep it under 150 words, acknowledge the issue without accepting liability, ask for two missing details, and propose a next step.” Put those requirements in the prompt.

Copy-Ready Template

ROLE
Act as [relevant role and seniority].

CONTEXT
We need to [business goal]. The audience is [audience].
Use this background and these approved sources: [context and sources].

TASK
Produce [specific outcome]. Follow these steps: [step 1], [step 2], [step 3].

FORMAT
Return [memo, email, table, JSON, or another structure].
Include [required sections or fields]. Keep it within [length].

CONSTRAINTS
Use only [approved data]. Do not [restricted behavior].
If information is missing, mark it Unknown and list what is needed.
Separate verified facts, assumptions, and recommendations.

Keep the instructions separate from pasted source material. Clearly label sections such as INSTRUCTIONS and DATA so that teammates can review the request and the agent is less likely to confuse external content with directions.

Treat Format as Quality Control

Format is not decoration. A competitor review in a table with Claim, Evidence, Source, and Confidence columns is easier to check than an unstructured paragraph. A fixed schema also reduces cleanup when the output will become a CRM record, ticket, report, or workflow input.

Use the same output shape across a team so reviewers can spot missing evidence and compare results consistently.

Upgrade Weak Requests

Work	Weak request	Better direction
Research	“Give me insights on this competitor.”	Ask for verified facts, clearly labelled inferences, open questions, evidence, sources, and confidence based on that evidence.
Writing	“Write a memo about the change.”	Name the audience, what is changing, why it matters, required actions, deadline, length, and missing details the agent must not invent.
Analysis	“Analyze this proposal.”	Ask for ranked risks, mitigations, approval criteria, and open questions that depend on internal policy or tooling.
Planning	“Create a project plan.”	Supply team size and timeline, then request milestones, owners, dependencies, risks, and explicit scope trade-offs.
Customer communication	“Reply to this angry customer.”	Set tone and length, require acknowledgement and next steps, and prohibit speculation, unconfirmed timelines, or risky commitments.

Review Before Reuse

Before accepting a prompt as a team template, check that it:

• defines what a high-quality result looks like;
• includes the data needed to complete the task;
• distinguishes evidence from assumptions;
• states what the agent should do when facts are missing;
• prevents sensitive data from being pasted into an unapproved agent or connection;
• requires human review before consequential decisions or external actions.

Avoid vague requests for “insights,” hidden goals, and prompts rebuilt from scratch every time. Start with a small shared library for research, writing, analysis, planning, and customer communication. Improve those templates from real reviewed outputs.

Safe Use With External Content

Webpages, email, retrieved documents, and tool responses can contain misleading or malicious instructions. Treat them as untrusted data, keep them separate from the prompt instructions, limit tools and sources to the approved scope, and require confirmation for high-impact actions.

Next, use The Five-Part Business Prompt for a deeper walkthrough of each field. The framework is based on Siesta AI's article How to Write AI Prompts for Business: A Simple Framework for Teams.