Write instructions for a template

Useful instructions explain what information matters, how much detail to keep and what to leave out. You do not need special commands or code. Write as if you were briefing a colleague who will summarise the conversation.

To find the fields described here, follow Create and customise a note template.

Start with the purpose

Use Meeting context for the purpose of the whole note: the kind of meeting, who will read the result, and the desired level of detail.

For example:

This is a project launch discussion. The note is for the project team. Focus on decisions, risks and agreed next steps. Keep it brief and do not retell the conversation speaker by speaker.

You can describe a preferred tone or length here. These are instructions for the generated text, not settings that guarantee an exact layout.

Give each section one job

A heading such as Decisions names the topic. The instruction underneath should explain what counts as a decision and what should not appear there. Avoid giving several sections the same broad task, such as “summarise the important points”: that can lead to repetition.

Decisions

List only decisions the participants explicitly agreed on. Include the reason when it was discussed. Do not list proposals that are still open.

Action items

List agreed follow-up actions. For each, state what needs to be done. Include an owner and a deadline only if they were mentioned. Do not assign missing owners or dates yourself. Present the actions as a checklist.

Risks

List obstacles that could delay the launch. For each, describe the impact and any solution discussed. Do not present a possible solution as agreed unless the participants agreed to it.

You can ask for bullets, a checklist or a short paragraph in the instruction. There is no separate block-type selector in the template editor. Review the result and adjust its formatting in the note editor if needed.

Say how much detail you need

Replace “make it useful” with a concrete direction. For example:

Keep the overview to two or three sentences. Put decisions and action items in their own sections rather than repeating them here.

For a customer interview, a different instruction might help:

Include a few short customer quotes that illustrate a problem. Preserve the wording from the transcript and keep it separate from your summary.

Instructions guide the result; they do not guarantee factual accuracy. Check quotations, names, dates and commitments against the transcript before using or sharing the note.

Try it on one conversation

Save the template and select it in a note with a completed transcript.
Generate the note and compare each section with the conversation.
Identify a specific issue: too much detail, duplicated information or a missing distinction between an idea and a decision.
Change the relevant instruction, save and generate again.

Keep any wording you want to preserve before testing again. Regeneration replaces the current title and content after confirmation; selecting or editing a template alone does not change a generated note. See Generate again.

Improve an unexpected result

Too much text: ask for a short overview, remove repeated requests and give each section a narrower purpose.
The same information appears twice: explain the boundary. For example, “Include unresolved questions here; put agreed actions in Action items.”
A section is missing: first check whether the transcript contains relevant information. Oudden may omit sections with nothing to include. Then check that you saved and selected the intended template.
A name, deadline or decision is wrong: check the transcript, correct the note and make the instruction more precise. A template cannot recover information that was not captured.
The language is unexpected: check the preferred speech language. With automatic detection, generation uses the main language of the transcript; the interface language is a fallback. There is no separate output-language setting for each template. See Languages.

Know what the template uses

This generation works from the current note's completed transcript and the selected template. It does not use manually written note text as its source, search your other notes or browse the web because an instruction asks it to.

For a question across your notes, use chat. To ask AI to change existing note text, use Create and edit notes with AI.