Add media tracking and presets to system prompt

[avishefi]

System prompts read from files or functions do not go through media tracking such as reading files - could be markdown links or angled-brackets links for simplicity.

Possibility to read link based on file format (org, markdown) can be provided by making the function to parse a buffer / file contents for file links as a gptel public-accessible function (no "--" in function name to denote private) so that prompt functions can utilize it.

Also, presets are not working with system prompt.

Is the entire context features not available by design for system prompts?

Common use case - agents system prompts coming from a function in gptel-directives that reads a file and uses context files and a preset.

[karthink]

Possibility to read link based on file format (org, markdown) can be provided by
making the function to parse a buffer / file contents for file links as a gptel
public-accessible function (no "--" in function name to denote private) so that
prompt functions can utilize it.

If you just want to add some files or buffers to the system-message function, why do you need any of the gptel internal helpers to do this? You can include the text of the files via the function directly, no?

Also, presets are not working with system prompt.

Yes, @preset cookies only work inside the prompt. @preset cookies in the system prompt can modify the system prompt, but they would be read only when processing the system prompt, at which point it's too late.

Possibility to read link based on file format (org, markdown) can be provided by
making the function to parse a buffer / file contents for file links as a gptel
public-accessible function (no "--" in function name to denote private) so that
prompt functions can utilize it.

I don't think links belong in the system prompt -- it is just text, and not tied to Org or Markdown syntax, nor are these the only modes in which gptel can be used.

Is the entire context features not available by design for system prompts?

The gptel-context- features are not part of the system prompt OR the user prompt.

Common use case - agents system prompts coming from a function in
gptel-directives that reads a file and uses context files and a preset.

Could you give me an example? I don't understand this.

[avishefi]

Claude Code, for example, allows its "agents" prompt files to have syntax such as "@file" and "!command". For example, if I have the following system prompt loaded from a file: "Read the file todo.org, take the next task that is marked TODO and do 1 2 3...", then I can have context inside the system prompt that's not fed manually into the gptel session buffer.

There's also yaml frontmatter which can be used in addition to presets for setting prompt, tools, etc. on a gptel session without first creating the preset. The preset comes from the system prompt file, which I can load using gptel-prompts and other functions I have.

I have the code below which I thought posting as gptel-agents along with functions that accomplish things similar to Claude Code only with gptel.

Would that be something you would consider adding to gptel? Is that a separate package in your view? It's using some internal functions and variables.

(defun my/gptel-start-agent (agent-name)
  "Start a gptel project agent named AGENT-NAME."
  (interactive
   (list
    (progn
      (my/gptel-project-prompts)
      (my/completing-read-gptel-directives))))
  (let* ((system-prompt (alist-get (intern agent-name) gptel-directives))
         (project (project-current t))
         (default-directory (project-root project))
         (buf-name (format "*%s-%s*" (project-name project) agent-name)))
    (if (get-buffer buf-name)
        (switch-to-buffer buf-name)
      (let* ((buf (gptel buf-name t "### " t))
             (processed-buf
              (generate-new-buffer
               (format "*start-agent-%s-%s" agent-name (random 10000)))))
        (with-current-buffer processed-buf
          (insert system-prompt)
          (my/gptel-prompt-transform-shell-command
           (lambda ()
             (unwind-protect
                 (progn
                   (with-current-buffer processed-buf
                     (let ((system-prompt (buffer-string))
                           (frontmatter
                            (my/enrich-frontmatter-gptel-tools
                             (my/parse-gptel-yaml-frontmatter))))
                       (with-current-buffer buf
                         (gptel--set-with-scope
                          'gptel--system-message system-prompt
                          gptel--set-buffer-locally)
                         (cl-loop for (var value) on frontmatter by 'cddr
                                  do (set (make-local-variable var) value))))))
               (and (buffer-name processed-buf)
                    (kill-buffer processed-buf))))
           nil))))))

Example markdown prompt with yaml frontmatter:

---
name: agent name
description: description
tools:
  emacs: # gptel tools category
  - emacs-find-library # tool name under category
temperature: 0.7
include-reasoning: false
---

<PROMPT>