---
schema: 1
type: term
title: custom instructions
description: >-
  **Custom instructions** — a persistent settings layer in ChatGPT where a user
  stores standing context about themselves (tendencies, goals, working
  preferences) that the model applies across conversations without re-prompting.
  The channel shows it used as an accountability device — e.g., storing a
  tendency to be “too opportunistic” plus quarterly goals so the model nudges
  you back on track like “a screen-time reminder” for strategy — and, in AI
  writing setups, as one distinct slot in a layered stack alongside style guides
  and skills.
canonical: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/custom-instructions-beb8aa6a7ecb
markdown: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/custom-instructions-beb8aa6a7ecb.md
llms: null
parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt'
channel: everyinc
updated: '2026-10-23T22:12:35.346Z'
language: null
children: []
---


# custom instructions

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/custom-instructions-beb8aa6a7ecb

Parent: [Channel index](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt)

## Definition

**Custom instructions** — a persistent settings layer in ChatGPT where a user stores standing context about themselves (tendencies, goals, working preferences) that the model applies across conversations without re-prompting. The channel shows it used as an accountability device — e.g., storing a tendency to be “too opportunistic” plus quarterly goals so the model nudges you back on track like “a screen-time reminder” for strategy — and, in AI writing setups, as one distinct slot in a layered stack alongside style guides and skills.

In this channel's material, **custom instructions** appears in two different modes. In the product sense, it is a settings layer in ChatGPT: a persistent block of context about the user — tendencies, goals, working style — that the model applies across conversations without being re-prompted. The interviewer's practice is the channel's flagship example: he stores his tendency to be “too opportunistic” plus his quarterly goals there, so the model nudges him back on track whenever a shiny idea appears — “a screen-time reminder” for strategy. Sahil Lavingia extends the same logic to the team level, pairing goal-holding in the product with a standing rule that employees spend five hours evaluating ideas with the model rather than deferring them to next quarter — clearing half-examined ideas out of everyone's head and removing excuses across the company. In the setup-design sense — most explicit in the Writing Camp Q&A — custom instructions is one slot in a layered AI writing stack, distinct from style guides and from skills; each slot carries a different kind of standing context, and knowing which layer a given preference belongs in is part of designing the setup.