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KentKent
2026 Respawn OSS

Prompts

Learn how to customize system prompts, supervisor instructions, subagent system prompts, workflow prompts, and repo guidance.

Models will follow the instructions by role: system -> developer -> user, from most authoritative to least authoritative. With kent, you can customize all three levels:

Instruction Files

Section titled “Instruction Files”
  • ~/.kent/AGENTS.md is a global instructions file injected into every session automatically.
  • <workspace>/AGENTS.md adds developer instructions that are specific to the current project.

These files are developer-level instructions.

System Prompt

Section titled “System Prompt”

System prompt files replace Kent’s built-in default “product engineer” / SWE-focused system prompt. Priority, lowest to highest:

  • Built-in system prompt
  • ~/.kent/SYSTEM.md
  • ~/.kent/config.toml system_prompt_file
  • <workspace-root>/.kent/SYSTEM.md
  • <workspace-root>/.kent/config.toml system_prompt_file
  • Selected [subagents.<role>] system_prompt_file

system_prompt_file paths are resolved relative to the containing config.toml directory unless absolute.

Kent snapshots the rendered system prompt on each compaction to prevent cache misses. Edits to system prompt files take effect after a successful compaction and the next model request.

Goal Continuation

Section titled “Goal Continuation”

After successful automatic, manual, or handoff compaction, a non-workflow session with an active goal resumes with the exact goal text and Kent’s goal work and completion guidance. Paused, completed, cleared, and absent goals add no continuation guidance, and reopening a session without compaction does not add it.

Placeholders

Section titled “Placeholders”

You can assemble your own system prompt from building blocks provided by Kent. It’s highly recommended to leave the instructions about the harness (HarnessWorkflowAutonomy) intact.

System prompt files use Go template syntax with these fields:

  • {{.DefaultSystemPromptHarnessWorkflowAutonomy}} - important guidelines on harness behavior, environment constraints, available tools.
  • {{.DefaultSystemPromptPersonality}} - Kent agent identity, communication style, and engineering posture.
  • {{.DefaultSystemPromptAmbiguityAndOutputQuality}} - opinionated product ambiguity handling and implementation quality rules.
  • {{.DefaultSystemPromptFinalAnswerAndFormatting}} - final response, Markdown, and formatting rules suitable for TUI.
  • {{.DefaultSystemPromptDelegation}} - subagent delegation guidance and examples.
  • {{.DefaultSystemPrompt}} - full text of the built-in Kent system prompt.
  • {{.LaunchCommand}} - Kent executable command, e.g. path/to/kent.exe.
  • {{.EstimatedToolCallsForContext}} - estimated function/tool-call budget before compaction/handoff, exact number that varies with model context window, like 185.
  • {{.EditingToolName}} - name of the tool the agent uses to modify files, like edit or patch. Varies per model.

Example:

{{.DefaultSystemPromptPersonality}}


{{.DefaultSystemPromptHarnessWorkflowAutonomy}}


# Team Rules


Prefer small, reviewable commits.

Additionally, if tool_preambles = true in the config, another block of text is appended instructing the model to talk to you while working.

Supervisor System Prompt

Section titled “Supervisor System Prompt”

reviewer.system_prompt_file replaces Kent’s built-in supervisor system prompt:

  • ~/.kent/config.toml
  • <workspace-root>/.kent/config.toml

The workspace config value takes priority. Kent snapshots the rendered supervisor prompt independently when a supervisor request is built; edits take effect for supervisor requests after successful compaction.

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