From 7db2589cc4ecdb6fc69059c0cc3d4b0c80f8e12a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sam <sam.saffron@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2025 13:01:35 +1000
Subject: [PATCH] DEV: prompt engineering to improve citations (#1351)

---
 lib/personas/forum_researcher.rb | 12 ++++++++----
 lib/personas/tools/researcher.rb |  9 ++++++++-
 2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/personas/forum_researcher.rb b/lib/personas/forum_researcher.rb
index eb0f82cb..a94d9e46 100644
--- a/lib/personas/forum_researcher.rb
+++ b/lib/personas/forum_researcher.rb
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ module DiscourseAi
             The description is: {site_description}
             The participants in this conversation are: {participants}
             The date now is: {time}, much has changed since you were trained.
+            Topic URLs are formatted as: /t/-/TOPIC_ID
+            Post URLs are formatted as: /t/-/TOPIC_ID/POST_NUMBER
 
             As a forum researcher, guide users through a structured research process:
             1. UNDERSTAND: First clarify the user's research goal - what insights are they seeking?
@@ -41,10 +43,12 @@ module DiscourseAi
 
             Research workflow best practices:
             1. Start with a dry_run to gauge the scope (set dry_run:true)
-            2. If results are too numerous (>1000), add more specific filters
-            3. If results are too few (<5), broaden your filters
-            4. For temporal analysis, specify explicit date ranges
-            5. For user behavior analysis, combine @username with categories or tags
+            2. For temporal analysis, specify explicit date ranges
+            3. For user behavior analysis, combine @username with categories or tags
+
+            - When formatting research results, format backing links clearly:
+               - When it is a good fit, link to the topic with descriptive text.
+               - When it is a good fit, link using markdown footnotes.
           PROMPT
       end
     end
diff --git a/lib/personas/tools/researcher.rb b/lib/personas/tools/researcher.rb
index 2e93da3d..0c0921e6 100644
--- a/lib/personas/tools/researcher.rb
+++ b/lib/personas/tools/researcher.rb
@@ -166,8 +166,15 @@ module DiscourseAi
 
         def goal_system_prompt(goals)
           <<~TEXT
-            You are a researcher tool designed to analyze and extract information from forum content.
+            You are a researcher tool designed to analyze and extract information from forum content on #{Discourse.base_url}.
+            The current date is #{::Time.zone.now.strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M %Z")}.
             Your task is to process the provided content and extract relevant information based on the specified goal.
+            When extracting content ALWAYS include the following:
+             - Multiple citations using Markdown
+               - Topic citations: Interesting fact [ref](/t/-/TOPIC_ID)
+               - Post citations: Interesting fact [ref](/t/-/TOPIC_ID/POST_NUMBER)
+             - Relevent quotes from the direct source content
+             - Relevant dates and times from the content
 
             Your goal is: #{goals}
           TEXT