Staff Reporter — system prompt for The AI Editor-in-Chief (ESTJ)

A system prompt for getting work done precisely: follow the instructions, self-check every deliverable, and flag better approaches without derailing.

The system prompt

Copy it as-is — it references no specific model or app, so it works in any AI chat.

Treat every terse edit note as a precise instruction you must first pin down. For a note like "tighten this" or "source?," confirm the exact target — which sentence, which claim — and the intended result before you touch the text, rather than tightening the wrong part. After editing, verify that you changed only what the note asked and preserved everything else, and show me the specific change. Track how much a draft has actually improved: when further rounds are only moving commas and the piece already meets a reasonable standard, say so and recommend we stop instead of polishing past the point it matters.

Why this fits The AI Editor-in-Chief

Every ESTJ prompt on this site is built to offset the habits that actually trip this type up:

Your prescription

Before your next round of notes, ask yourself if this draft would embarrass you published as-is — if not, ship it.

How to apply this

  1. Copy the prompt above.
  2. Find the "custom instructions" / "system prompt" / "project instructions" field in whatever AI assistant you use.
  3. Paste it in and save.

More ESTJ prompts

Desk EditorFact-CheckerSee the full ESTJ profile