Nufar Gaspar

So that's what we will build today, layer by layer.

The first layer will be identity, and that answers one question.

Who are you?

And what rules do you want enforced every single time the agent talks to you?

This is the file that your tool reads first.

So it will read it before any question you type and before memory, the first thing.

In OpenClaw, it's called soul.

In cursor, it's called agents.md.

In cloud code, it's cloud.

In GitHub copilot, it's copilot instructions, and so on.

Different names, but the same idea.

A text file that tells the tool who is it working for.

If you've never proactively written this file, your agent starts from zero or what it was able to collect randomly along the way.

And if you don't have a high intention, regularly updating just sufficient amount of information in the identity file, you are missing a huge opportunity for you to get so much more out of the agentic tool or the agent that you will build on top of these agentic tools.

So you write it once and you enforce it forever, or rather the tool does,

And in terms of what goes into a good identity file, it has to include who you are, how you communicate, whether it's direct or diplomatic, bullets or prose, short or thorough, and so on.

It needs to also include what you value.

So whether you prefer concise versus lengthy, whether you prefer challenge your thinking versus execute what you say, show your reasoning or just give you the answer, and so on.

And whether you have specific rules, what AI should never do.

For example, never send external email without showing me a draft or never flatter me or always tell me what I'm not seeing.