🎯 Overview
The agent is not psychic. It does not know your prices, your clients, or your standard terms. It only knows what you show it in the conversation. People forget this and then blame the tool. "It got the client name wrong." It never had the client name. This lesson teaches the second habit: bring the material. Point the agent at a file. Paste the part that matters. Say the business rule out loud. You also build a small practice folder you will keep using.
📌 The rule of this lesson: the agent only knows what you show it.
🧭 Context
You need your installed agent tool with folder access switched on. This is why the course uses an installed tool and not a chat website. A chat website cannot open your files. If folder access is new to you, the setup guide in Resources covers it.
🔧 How it works: three ways to show it
Way 1 - point it at a file. Your tool can read files in folders you approve. So name the file in the prompt. "Read quote-smith-driveway.pdf in this folder, then draft the cover email." Now the price and scope come from the real document, not from a guess.
Way 2 - paste the relevant part. No file handy? Paste the part that matters into the prompt. The client's actual question. The three lines of the spec that changed. Do not paste a 40-page document when one paragraph carries the answer. More noise means worse aim.
Way 3 - say the business rule. Some context lives only in your head. Say it. "We do not start jobs without a signed quote and a deposit." "Payment terms are 14 days." "We never quote supply-only." One sentence of rule beats ten corrections later.
The practice folder habit. Make one folder called agent-practice. Put copies in it, never originals: one quote, one client email chain, one register or price list. Redact what is private. Point the agent at this folder while you learn. You get real answers about real work, and nothing important is at risk. Keep the folder. Every lesson after this one uses it, and the paid courses assume the habit.
<!-- image: What the agent can and cannot see: a head-of-the-table agent with three labelled inputs flowing in (a named file, a pasted paragraph, a spoken business rule) and a crossed-out cloud labelled "your memory, your other apps, last week's chat" -->
🧠 Why this works
Every fact the agent needs comes from you, in this conversation. When a fact is missing, the agent does not stop. It fills the gap with something plausible. Plausible is the danger word. A plausible price looks right and is wrong. Context closes the gaps before the agent can fill them. That is the whole trick.
The practice folder works for a different reason. It removes fear. You cannot break a copy. People who practise on copies try more, learn faster, and trust the tool sooner.
🧩 How it fits
Lesson 1 gave the agent a target. This lesson gives it the material. Lesson 3 checks what it built with that material. In the paid courses this idea grows up: the agent works from one official home for each piece of information, so there are never two versions arguing. Your practice folder is the small first version of that.
🛠️ Build it / try it
- Make a folder called
agent-practice. Copy in one quote, one client email chain, and one - Point your agent tool at the folder. Ask it to list the files. That proves access works.
- Run one real task against a file, with a rule attached.
register or price list. Redact what is private.
📋 A starter you can copy and adapt:
Read [file name] in this folder. Outcome: draft the cover email that sends this quote to the
client. Format: three short paragraphs, under 150 words. Limits: use only the price, scope and
client name from the file. Our payment terms are 14 days; state them. Do not invent anything
that is not in the file. If something you need is missing, ask me instead of guessing.
✅ What good looks like
The draft uses the real client name, the real price, and your stated terms. When a fact was missing, the agent asked you instead of inventing it.
💡 Key takeaways
- The agent only knows what you show it, in this conversation.
- Show it three ways: name the file, paste the part that matters, say the rule.
- "If something is missing, ask me instead of guessing" belongs in your prompts.
- Keep a practice folder of redacted copies. Copies make you brave.
Next: Lesson 03, Check and Steer.