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

# Prompting

> Short guides that help you write instructions your Cloud Employee can follow.

A prompt is any writing you give your Cloud Employee to tell it what to do. That writing is spread across several places in its settings:

* The base prompt, where you describe the job
* A channel prompt for each channel, which covers how to speak on a phone call or in a chat
* The description on each tool, which says when to use it
* The description on each data capture field, which says what to save in it

Your Cloud Employee reads all of it, so all of it counts. These guides help you write instructions it can follow, and fix the ones it cannot.

Open the page that matches what you are working on. You do not need to read all three.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="General best practices" icon="list-check" href="/prompting/general-best-practices">
    How to write a good prompt, what to avoid, and how to fix one that failed
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cloud Employee" icon="message" href="/prompting/cloud-employee">
    Which prompt each instruction belongs in
  </Card>

  <Card title="Data capture" icon="table" href="/prompting/data-capture">
    How to describe a field so the right answer gets saved
  </Card>
</CardGroup>