When writing instructions for tools on the Abacus.AI platform, focus on being specific yet concise. A good tool instruction clearly states what the tool does, when to use it, and what inputs it expects. Start with a clear purpose statement followed by the exact usage context. For example: "This tool analyzes sentiment in customer feedback text and returns a score between -1 to 1. Use it when evaluating customer satisfaction levels from reviews, survey responses, or social media comments."
Avoid vague descriptions like "process data" or "generate report" - instead, be precise about the operation and output. The examples below demonstrate this principle with well-structured prompts that balance detail with brevity.
"This tool takes text input and generates a concise summary while preserving key information. It uses extractive summarization techniques to identify and retain the most important sentences. Use this tool when you need to condense long text passages into brief summaries while maintaining core meaning and context."
- "Summarize this text"
- "Make text shorter"
- "Create a summary of the content"
"This tool executes arbitrary Python code that has been validated using AST parsing for safety. It helps LLMs perform complex computational tasks like arithmetic calculations that may be beyond their capabilities. Use this tool when users request complex mathematical operations and you need guaranteed accuracy rather than relying on your own arithmetic abilities."
- "Run some Python code to do math"
- "Execute Python functions"
- "Calculate numbers using Python"
"The tool is given as input a project key and fetches the latest Jira issues created in the last 24 hours. Return a list of issues containing issue key, summary, status, assignee, and priority. This tool should be invoked whenever asked to get a quick overview of recent project activity, monitor new issues, or generate status reports."
- "Get Jira issues from the project and show their details like key and status"
- "Retrieve all Jira tickets created recently in the specified project and display their information"
- "Generate a report of Jira issues with basic fields like summary and assignee"
"The tool takes as input a page title, content, and space key, and creates a new Confluence page with the specified content. The context is expected to be in plaintext format. This tool should be invoked when there's a need to document processes, create knowledge base articles, or share information with the team in a structured way."
- "Create a new page in Confluence with the provided information"
- "Add content to Confluence space and give it a title"
- "Make a Confluence page to store some documentation"