Prompts and Planning

createSmartAgent calls buildSystemPrompt under the hood to compose a system message. You can reuse the helper directly or append extra instructions via options.

Base prompt construction

import { buildSystemPrompt } from "@cognipeer/agent-sdk";

const prompt = buildSystemPrompt(
	"Keep answers short and cite sources when available.",
	true,             // planning enabled
	"ResearchHelper" // agent name header
);

The generated prompt includes:

• Agent header (Agent Name: ...).
• General conduct rules (concise answers, avoid fabrications, ask clarifying questions when needed).
• Optional planning block when planning = true.
• Extra instructions: section with your custom text (if provided).

Planning rules

When useTodoList: true, the following directives are injected:

1. First action must be a single call to manage_todo_list with an ordered plan (even for trivial tasks).
2. After every non-planning tool call, immediately update the plan via manage_todo_list (write operation) and attach one-line evidence for the affected item.
3. Keep exactly one item in-progress; others must be not-started or completed.
4. Never expose the plan text or summarize it in assistant messages.
5. If the agent ever responds without writing a plan in the session, it must stop and write the plan first.

These rules are enforced by the prompt and by manage_todo_list events. Monitor plan events to surface plan changes in your UI.

Additional instructions

Pass systemPrompt to createSmartAgent to append more guidance:

const agent = createSmartAgent({
	model,
	tools,
	useTodoList: false,
	systemPrompt: "Answer using bullet points and cite documentation links when relevant.",
});

The text you supply is added verbatim under the Extra instructions: section. Keep it concise and declarative.

Using your own system message

If you want complete control over the system message, prepend it manually when calling invoke and set useTodoList: false (to avoid duplicate planning rules). The smart agent will detect an existing system message at index 0 and skip inserting another.