Your First Hour With an AI Agent: The 4 Prompts to Run First

Take inventory of what you can actually access for my business.

Create two lists.

First: live connections. Check which apps and tools you can access right now through connectors, integrations, plugins, or API keys. Look specifically for email, calendar, accounting, invoices, payments, CRM, file storage, project management tools, website data, and anything else connected to this workspace.

For each live connection, run only a harmless read-only check. Tell me what worked, what did not work, and what you were able to confirm. Do not describe what should be possible. Describe only what actually worked.

Second: local or uploaded business files. Look for business documents, spreadsheets, exports, proposals, contracts, invoices, client folders, marketing assets, SOPs, and reports. Do not open anything that appears highly sensitive without flagging it first.

Then give me a plain-English map:

1. What you can access live
2. What you can only access as files
3. What you cannot access at all
4. What I would need to connect or upload to make the next prompts work better
5. Three useful things you could do for me this week using only what is available right now

Use plain business language. No technical jargon.

Build a business memory file for me.

Do not interview me first. Use existing evidence.

Read what you can access: my website, email history, calendar, accounting records, CRM, proposals, invoices, contracts, client folders, service pages, and business documents.

Create a one-page business memory file that covers:

1. What this business sells
2. Who buys it
3. The main offers or services
4. Typical pricing or project size
5. Key people, roles, clients, vendors, or partners
6. Common client problems
7. How we usually talk to clients based on real sent emails
8. Any standing rules I should keep in place

Mark anything uncertain as [ASSUMPTION]. Do not pretend guesses are facts.

Show me the draft first and let me correct it. After I approve it, save it as BUSINESS_MEMORY.md. If this workspace already uses CLAUDE.md or another agent instruction file, update that file too.

Read my business memory file. Then review evidence of how work actually happens in my business: sent emails, recurring documents, spreadsheets, client folders, calendar patterns, project management tasks, reports, and repeated messages.

Identify the top ten tasks I should hand off to you.

Rank them by likely monthly time saved and business value.

For each task, tell me:

1. What the task is
2. How often it appears to happen
3. What evidence you used
4. What you would need from me once
5. What output I would get back
6. Whether it is low-risk, medium-risk, or high-risk
7. Whether it should require my approval before anything external happens

Then write the full ready-to-paste prompt for the top three tasks so I can start using them today.

Add these standing rules to my business memory file and follow them in every future session.

Permanent red lines. These never change, no matter what:

1. Never commit me to a price, discount, refund, payment plan, scope change, or contract term. Money and legal promises are mine alone.
2. Never present a guess as a fact. Mark anything uncertain as [ASSUMPTION].
3. When something could cost real money, create legal exposure, or damage a client relationship, stop and show me before acting.

Working rules. These are my starting defaults. They are meant to loosen over time, but only when I explicitly say so:

4. Client-facing and external messages: draft and HOLD until I approve each one.
5. Publishing anything publicly: approval first.
6. Deleting, moving, renaming, or overwriting files: show me the plan first.

How loosening works:

- Only I can loosen a working rule, and only in specific carve-outs, never wholesale. Example: "You can file invoices into the client folders without asking" or "Send routine payment receipts automatically."
- When I grant a carve-out, record it in the memory file with the date and its exact limits. Everything outside the carve-out stays on approval.
- If you have earned a strong track record on some category of task, you may propose a carve-out and show me the evidence. I decide.

One more rule so this does not slow us down: never use these rules as a reason to stall. If a task can proceed safely in draft form, proceed and bring me the drafts. Ask only when a red line is actually in play.

Confirm these rules back to me in plain English. Then save them to the business memory file.