Instructions & Prompts

Recto lets you control how your AI assistant interacts with your journal through two mechanisms: instructions and prompt templates.

Instructions

Instructions are persistent system-level text that tells your AI assistant how to behave when journaling. They are automatically injected into your AI assistant’s context when it connects via MCP — no action required from the assistant.

Default behavior

Out of the box, Recto ships with default instructions that tell the assistant to:

Automatically capture journal entries without asking for confirmation
Operate naturally in the background
Proactively enrich entries with context and tags
Use search and reflect tools when appropriate

Customizing instructions

Via the web dashboard: Go to Settings and select the Instructions tab. Edit the text and save.

Via the REST API:

# Get current instructions
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RECTO_API_KEY" \
  http://localhost:3000/instructions

# Update instructions
curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: Bearer $RECTO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"content": "Your custom instructions here..."}' \
  http://localhost:3000/instructions

# Reset to defaults
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $RECTO_API_KEY" \
  http://localhost:3000/instructions/reset

Prompt Templates

Prompt templates are reusable conversation starters that your AI assistant can offer. MCP clients that support the Prompts API will automatically discover them.

Default prompts

Recto includes six built-in prompts:

Prompt	Purpose
`daily-checkin`	Guided daily journal entry
`weekly-review`	Reflect on the past week
`monthly-retrospective`	Month-end review and goal assessment
`gratitude`	Gratitude-focused reflection
`idea-capture`	Develop and refine an idea
`goal-setting`	Set and break down goals

Managing prompts

Via the web dashboard: Go to Settings and select the Prompts tab. View, create, edit, or delete prompts.

Via the REST API:

# List all prompts
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RECTO_API_KEY" \
  http://localhost:3000/prompts

# Create a custom prompt
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $RECTO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "my-prompt", "description": "A custom prompt", "content": "Template text..."}' \
  http://localhost:3000/prompts

# Update an existing prompt
curl -X PUT -H "Authorization: Bearer $RECTO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"content": "Updated template text..."}' \
  http://localhost:3000/prompts/<id>

# Reset a default prompt to its original content
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $RECTO_API_KEY" \
  http://localhost:3000/prompts/<id>/reset