How to Teach ChatGPT Work to Think Like You

Jeff Su · 88.5K views

R-report

• ChatGPT Work (desktop version) can be transformed into a highly personalized AI assistant by teaching it your specific rules and preferences. • An `AGENTS.md` file acts as a master rulebook, automatically read by ChatGPT Work before every task to ensure consistent outputs. • You can teach ChatGPT Work new rules on the fly, and it will update your `AGENTS.md` file, allowing the system to self-improve over time. • Plugins connect ChatGPT Work to your existing apps, and you can add app-specific rules to guide its interaction with these tools. • The side panel offers powerful features like file preview/editing, an in-app browser for web interaction, and a temporary side chat for parallel queries.

ChatGPT Work is a significant upgrade from the standard chatbot, but its full potential isn't immediately obvious. It's designed to go beyond just answering questions, performing work for you by connecting to your tools and remembering how you like to work. This guide focuses on the desktop version, which is the most capable.

🤖 The Master Rulebook: AGENTS.md

The core of a personalized ChatGPT Work system is a Markdown file named `AGENTS.md`. Think of this as your AI's master rulebook, written entirely in plain English. This file contains sections like:

• **Purpose:** Explains how the document works.

• **Global Rules:** Instructions ChatGPT Work follows for all tasks.

• **Voice Principles:** Controls the AI's writing style.

• **Routing Map:** Directs tasks to specific folders based on content.

• **Maintenance:** Explains how the AI should keep the file organized.

To set this up, you download a starter template, rename it exactly to `AGENTS.md`, and place it in a dedicated folder on your desktop. When you mount this folder as a "project" in ChatGPT Work, the AI will automatically read `AGENTS.md` before performing any task, applying its instructions as defaults.

A key feature is the ability to teach ChatGPT Work new rules. For example, if you tell it to "add a cake emoji to birthday event titles and a gift reminder to the description, and carry these rules forward for every birthday event," it will update the `AGENTS.md` file with these new "Google Calendar Rules." This means future birthday reminders will automatically include these details without you having to repeat the instructions. This self-updating capability ensures consistent results and makes the AI more useful over time.

🔌 Connecting Tools and Organizing Rules

ChatGPT Work's power extends through **plugins**, which connect it to your existing applications like Gmail, Notion, Slack, and Google Calendar. While simply connecting these apps is a start, the real upgrade comes from teaching ChatGPT Work *how you* use them.

You can add app-specific rules to `AGENTS.md`. For instance, you might instruct it: "Meetings default to 45 minutes, and format Google Calendar descriptions so they're easy to scan: start with bottom line up front followed by 3 short bullets with relevant context." ChatGPT Work will then apply these formatting rules to all future calendar events it creates.

However, having all rules for all apps in one `AGENTS.md` file can become unwieldy and lead to less efficient processing. A pro tip is to create a separate `Tool Conventions.md` file. You can instruct ChatGPT Work to move all tool- or plugin-specific rules from `AGENTS.md` into this new file, replacing the moved content in `AGENTS.md` with a link. This keeps your main `AGENTS.md` lean (loading before every task) while allowing `Tool Conventions.md` to be loaded on demand when a specific tool is invoked.

↔️ The Side Panel: Your AI's Workspace

The side panel in ChatGPT Work offers three distinct functionalities that enhance your interaction:

1. **Preview Pane:** This allows you to quickly review and edit files that ChatGPT Work surfaces in the chat. You can highlight sections, make changes, and even instruct the AI to modify the content directly within the pane.

2. **In-app Browser:** A fully functional web browser is integrated into the side panel. You can open web pages, browse content, and most powerfully, annotate specific sections of a page. This allows you to point to an exact element on a website and give instructions in plain English, like "Create a preview of this section in dark mode." If ChatGPT Work is connected to the website's hosting platform, it can even implement these changes directly.

3. **Side Chat:** This temporary chat runs parallel to your main conversation. It has access to the full context of your main task but operates independently. This is invaluable for asking clarifying questions or exploring tangents without interrupting the main task's flow or altering its deliverables. Anything discussed in the side chat does not flow back into the main chat and is deleted upon closing, so remember to copy anything you wish to retain.

📈 Self-Improving Workflows with Skills

Beyond explicit rules, ChatGPT Work can learn and refine its processes through **skills**. A skill is essentially a defined workflow that takes a specific input, processes it against a set of rules, and produces a structured output.

For example, you can teach ChatGPT Work to refine its writing style. By providing it with an initial draft of your newsletter (what it wrote) and your final edited version (what you actually sent), you can instruct it to "compare this final newsletter against your original draft... identify the repeatable differences in my writing style, then create an Improve Skill." This skill will then analyze the patterns in your edits, propose updates to the "Voice Principles" section of your `AGENTS.md` file, and create a reusable "Improve" skill. In the future, you can simply run this skill on any new draft, and ChatGPT Work will automatically apply your learned writing preferences.

This self-improvement loop is a game-changer: you're already making edits and corrections, so why not leverage those actions to continuously teach your AI assistant your preferences? This means you'll spend less and less time re-explaining yourself, and your AI will become increasingly aligned with your unique way of working.

🚀 Building Your Personalized AI System

To truly harness ChatGPT Work, the next logical step is to build a structured AI system. This involves:

1. **Organizing your workspace:** Create dedicated folders (workstations) for different areas of your life or work (e.g., Travel, Newsletter HQ, Personal Finances).

2. **Implementing a routing map:** Update your `AGENTS.md` with rules that tell ChatGPT Work which folder to route specific requests to. For example, any trip-related task should be routed to your "Travel" folder.

3. **Developing custom skills:** Continuously create and refine skills that automate recurring tasks and incorporate your personal preferences, allowing the AI to learn and adapt.

By systematically building out your `AGENTS.md` file with global rules, tool conventions, and self-improving skills, you transform ChatGPT Work into a truly personalized and efficient AI partner that understands and anticipates your needs. This foundational setup allows you to automate tedious work, ensure consistency, and continuously improve your AI's performance over time.