Agent With Instructions

Steer agent responses with an instructions string that requests a three-bullet answer format.

Agent With Instructions Quickstart.

agent_with_instructions.py
"""
Agent With Instructions
=============================

Agent With Instructions Quickstart.
"""

from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.models.openai import OpenAIResponses

# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Agent Instructions
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
instructions = """\
You are a concise assistant.
Answer with exactly 3 bullet points when possible.\
"""

# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Create Agent
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
agent = Agent(
    name="Instruction-Tuned Agent",
    model=OpenAIResponses(id="gpt-5.2"),
    instructions=instructions,
)

# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Run Agent
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
if __name__ == "__main__":
    agent.print_response("How can I improve my Python debugging workflow?", stream=True)

Run the Example

Set up your virtual environment

uv venv --python 3.12
source .venv/bin/activate

Install dependencies

uv pip install -U agno openai

Export your OpenAI API key

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your_openai_api_key_here"

Run the example

Save the code above as agent_with_instructions.py, then run:

python agent_with_instructions.py

Full source: cookbook/02_agents/01_quickstart/agent_with_instructions.py