Best Practices

Getting Great Results with 913.ai Agents

Written By Maveen Mushtaq

Last updated 6 months ago

Working with AI agents is like working with a (very fast) teammate. You’ll get the best results when you: pick the right agent, explain the task clearly, use Rules for your style, and iterate with quick feedback.

1) Start Right: Choose the Right Agent (from Contacts)

  • Go to Contacts → Agents and pick the agent that best matches your task.

  • Not sure? Ask Olivia. Olivia is your guide—tell her what you need, and she’ll recommend the right agent (and can even send the task to that agent for you).

Examples

  • “Olivia, I need a clean executive summary from this 60-page PDF.”

  • “Olivia, which agent should draft a customer apology email and then export it to PDF?

Tip (Beta): Very long documents (30–100+ pages)? Try Olivia first for long-document processing. She’s currently the only agent with this ability in beta.

2) Prompting: Say Exactly What You Want (Simple & Specific)

Prompts are your instructions. Clear prompts = better results.

Read the full guide: How to write prompts that get great results

👉 https://community.913.ai/help/articles/2614667-how-to-write-prompts-that-get-great-results

Quick recipe (copy/paste):

Goal: What you need (e.g., 5-bullet summary for leadership). Context: Key facts/files (e.g., Contract.pdf pages 3–7). Audience & Tone: Who it’s for + voice (formal, friendly, legal). Format: Bullets/table/email; length limits (≤120 words). Rules: Any do/don’t (no links, cite page #s).

Good prompt examples

  • “Summarize pages 3–7 into 5 bullets for the CFO. ≤80 words, include clause/page numbers.”

  • “Draft a 4-sentence email to the vendor about invoice #1845 (due 10 Sep). Tone: polite & firm. End with ‘Thanks, [My Name]’.”

3) Personalize Your Agent with Rules (Your Style, Every Time)

Rules are always-on preferences (tone, formatting, habits). They apply across your chats with that agent.

Rule examples

  • “Write emails in a polite but friendly tone.”

  • “When summarizing, always give 5 bullets and ≤120 words.”

  • “If a document is provided, cite page numbers for claims.”

4) Iterate Fast: Give Feedback Like You Would to a Person

Agents improve instantly when you tell them what to fix.

Full guide: How to improve your agents

👉 https://community.913.ai/help/articles/5700514-how-to-improve-your-agents

Say things like

  • “The link isn’t working—please generate a new one.”

  • “Too general—turn this into a point-by-point comparison.”

  • “You missed the financial section—please summarize only that.”

5) Use the Doc Editor (Beta) for Drafting & Control

For documents (contracts, proposals, letters), the Doc Editor gives you more control: live changes, version history, clean exports (PDF/DOCX).

Guide: Using the Doc Editor (Beta)

👉 https://community.913.ai/help/articles/7718729-using-the-doc-editor-beta

How it works

  • Ask a supported agent (Ava, Rachel, Omega) to “Draft” → the Doc Editor opens.

  • Edit directly or ask the agent to revise inside the editor.

  • Compare versions, undo/redo, then Export (PDF/DOCX).

When to use: Formal docs, precise formatting, tracked revisions, or when you want to polish language before sending.

6) Use Standard Effort vs. High Effort Mode

When you type a message to an agent, you’ll notice a small option below the input box called “Amount of effort agent should put.”

  • By default, this is set to Standard Effort.

    • Best for: Simple, everyday tasks.

    • Why: It’s faster and more efficient.

  • If you want the agent to think longer and work harder, you can switch to High Effort Mode.

    • Best for: Complex or important tasks (e.g., analyzing long contracts, comparing multiple documents, building detailed reports).

    • Why: The agent spends more time reasoning and checking before giving an answer.

    • Tradeoff: It will take longer to respond.

👉 Our recommendation:

  • Use Standard Effort for quick, simple tasks (summaries, short emails, formatting requests).

  • Use High Effort when you need depth, careful reasoning, or more complex outputs.

Examples

  • Standard Effort: “Summarize this 2-page document into 3 bullets.”

  • High Effort: “Analyze this 60-page contract and point out potential risks in the payment and confidentiality terms.”

7) Simple Do/Don’t Checklist

Do

  • Pick the right agent (or ask Olivia to route it).

  • Lead with the result you want and the format.

  • Add context (files/pages) and tone (who will read it).

  • Use Rules for recurring style preferences.

  • Give quick feedback and ask it to retry.

Don’t

  • Write “do your best”—be specific.

  • Mix conflicting asks (“short and detailed,” “casual and legal”).

  • Forget limits (word count, bullets, table).

  • Overload Rules—keep them short and clear.

8) Common Situations (Copy/Paste Prompts)

  • Executive summary

    “Create a 5-bullet executive summary from pages 2–6 for leadership. ≤80 words total. Include clause/page numbers.”

  • Customer reply

    “Draft a 4-sentence apology email for a 3-day shipping delay (Order #1845). Tone polite/solution-oriented. End with ‘Thanks, [My Name]’.”

  • Policy comparison

    “Build a table: Topic | Policy A | Policy B | Risk/Impact. Use page numbers and bold any conflicts.”

  • Fix missing link

    “You didn’t generate the file link. Please create and share a working link now.”

9) Troubleshooting (Quick Wins)

  • Too generic? Add audience + tone + format + limits.

  • Missed context? Point to files/pages.

  • Inconsistent tone? Put your style in Rules.

  • Long doc issues? Use Olivia (long-document beta).

10) One-Page Workflow (Print Me)

  1. Choose agent (or ask Olivia).

  2. Prompt with Goal, Context, Audience/Tone, Format, Limits.

  3. Set Rules for your style (user-specific, agent-specific).

  4. Review → give quick feedback → retry.

  5. For docs, switch to Doc Editor to polish & export.

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