> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tester.army/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Agent Instructions

> Give the QA agent standing, project-specific guidance that it reads on every run, so it handles your app the way your team would.

Every project has a saved-test agent that reads your steps, drives the app, and
decides whether each step passed. Out of the box it relies on general testing
knowledge plus what it has learned about your app. **Agent instructions** let
you add your own standing guidance on top: notes about how your app behaves,
what to avoid, and how strictly to judge results.

The instructions are injected into the agent's system prompt on every run of
the project - manual, scheduled, group, PR, and discovery runs alike - so you
write them once instead of repeating them in every test.

## Where to set them

1. Open the project in the dashboard and go to the **Settings** tab.
2. Scroll to **Agent instructions** and type your guidance into the text area.
3. Click **Save**. The next run of any test in the project picks them up.

Clear the field and save to remove them. Instructions can be up to 4000
characters.

## What to put in them

Good instructions describe things the agent cannot infer from a single test:

* **App quirks:** "A cookie banner covers the footer on first load. Dismiss it
  before interacting with the page."
* **Navigation hints:** "The admin area lives under `/admin` and only the staff
  account can open it."
* **Boundaries:** "Never press *Delete account* or *Cancel subscription*, even
  if a step seems to ask for it."
* **Judgement rules:** "Treat any red toast or console error as a failure for
  the step that triggered it."
* **Domain vocabulary:** "'Workspace' and 'Team' mean the same thing in our UI."

Keep them short and concrete. The agent reads them alongside your test steps,
project memory, and saved credentials, so there is no need to restate what is
already in those.

## How they are applied

Instructions are advisory. The agent follows them on every step unless doing so
would stop it from verifying what the step actually asks for, or would conflict
with its built-in safety rules. They cannot make the agent skip verification or
report a step as passed without evidence.

## API and MCP

The same field is available as `agentInstructions` on the project API and the
MCP `update_project` tool, so you can manage it from code or from your own AI
tooling:

```bash theme={"theme":"vesper"}
curl -X PATCH https://tester.army/api/v1/projects/$PROJECT_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TESTERARMY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"agentInstructions": "Dismiss the cookie banner before every step."}'
```

Send `null` to clear the instructions.

## Related settings

* [Planner instructions for the PR exploration agent](/run/pr-exploration-agent#custom-instructions)
  steer the *planner* that decides what to test on a pull request. Agent
  instructions steer the agent while it *executes* steps, on every kind of run.
* Project memory captures what the agent has learned automatically; agent
  instructions are what you tell it explicitly.