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Rules, Workflows, and Skills are three different ways to give your Agent instructions, and they each handle a separate concern. Mix them up and you’ll find your Agent forgetting your voice, skipping steps, or ignoring your world-building.
TypeWhat it doesWhen it appliesOne-line analogy
RuleSets hard limits and non-negotiablesAlways, automaticallyCompany policy handbook
WorkflowDefines a step-by-step processWhen you trigger a specific taskA standard operating procedure
SkillPackages a specialized techniqueWhen you call on it by nameA trained specialist on your team

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Rule

A Rule is a standing constraint. No matter which chapter you’re writing or what you ask the Agent to do, it follows these rules automatically—you never have to remind it. What belongs here:
  • Banned words and phrases—things you never want to appear in your manuscript 
    Never use: suddenly, very, needless to say, as if on cue
No italics for internal monologue—write it as action or dialogue
Don't end dialogue with "he/she said" as a beat tag
  • Character voice floors—make sure your leads can’t be written out of character 
    Nathaniel: terse, never admits defeat in words—only through action.
            Won't say "I was wrong." Responds to pressure by going quiet.
Vera: tough exterior, never shows vulnerability in front of strangers
  • World-building hard limits—the rules of your fictional universe can’t be broken 
    Setting is 1890s London. No electricity, no motor vehicles.
Magic system has five tiers—there is no sixth.
The Order of Ashford never harms civilians. This is a core plot rule.
If you have a clear set of lines you don’t want the Agent to cross, start with Rules. They’re the lowest-effort, highest-impact thing you can set up.

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Workflow

A Workflow is a procedure. You tell the Agent how to handle a type of task step by step—then whenever you need it, you call it and it runs the whole process without hand-holding. What belongs here:
  • Chapter continuation—a fixed sequence every time you continue a scene 
    When continuing a chapter, follow these steps:
1. Recap the emotional hook from the previous chapter's final beat
2. Confirm the main conflict goal for this chapter
3. Write the scene (target: 1,500–2,000 words)
4. End on a cliffhanger or reversal
    How to use it: just say “continue chapter twelve” and the Agent handles all four steps—no need to remind it to end on a hook.
  • Manuscript review—hand off a draft and get a structured edit report back 
    On receiving a draft, check in order:
1. Character name consistency throughout
2. Timeline conflicts (e.g. daytime scene suddenly shifts to night)
3. Dialogue that breaks character voice (cross-check against Rules)
4. Output a report in this format: Issue / Paragraph / Suggested fix
  • Outline expansion—take a one-line premise and build it into a full chapter structure
If you keep explaining the same steps to the Agent over and over, turn it into a Workflow. This is where you’ll feel the biggest time savings.

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Skill

A Skill is a reusable writing technique. You teach the Agent a specific craft move once, save it, and then call on it whenever you need it—without re-explaining how it works. What belongs here:
  • Signature emotional beats—lock in the pacing of a scene type you use often 
    [Skill: slow-burn confession]
- Open with the lead acting indifferent; the reader assumes he doesn't care
- Plant one specific detail mid-scene that reveals he's been paying attention all along
- Close with a single action or line of dialogue—no internal monologue—that makes his
  feelings undeniable
- Pacing: long setup → one quiet detonation → white space ending
    How to use it: “Use the slow-burn confession skill for the scene where Caleb sees Mara at the train station.”
  • Action scene style—lock in how your fight scenes move and breathe
  • Voice matching—save your own prose style so the Agent doesn’t drift into generic AI phrasing
If you have a craft technique that’s hard to re-explain every time—a pacing move, a tonal register, a genre convention—put it in a Skill.

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Using all three together

Rules, Workflows, and Skills aren’t in competition. They layer on top of each other. Example: writing a contemporary romance novel
  • Rule: Declan never apologizes first. Ban phrases like “her heart raced” and “butterflies in her stomach.” No supernatural elements—this is strictly contemporary.
  • Workflow: Before each continuation, confirm the previous chapter’s emotional hook. After writing, check whether the main characters’ dialogue stays in voice.
  • Skill: Save a “Declan-style almost-confession” technique—he never says “I love you.” He shows it through small, specific actions, and the reader has to put it together.
All three run at once. That’s when the Agent starts writing something that actually sounds like your book.

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Where to start

1

Start with Rules

List the mistakes you most dread the Agent making—banned words, character voice floors, world-building limits. This is the easiest thing to set up and has an immediate effect.
2

Then build a Workflow

Pick your most repetitive task—chapter continuation or manuscript review—and make one Workflow for it. You’ll feel the time savings right away.
3

Add Skills as you go

When you find yourself re-explaining the same craft technique, that’s the signal to package it as a Skill. You don’t need to build these all at once—add them as the need comes up.

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Further reading

Rules

Capture your personal writing preferences so the Agent always writes in your voice, not its default

Workflows

Package repetitive writing tasks into reusable step files and run an entire process with a single command

Skills

Package specialized Agent knowledge into reusable instruction sets that activate only when you need them