Work
Ground-test a routine before it runs 168 times a week
An hourly routine runs 168 times a week, so one bad assumption becomes 168 mistakes while you sleep.
What hurt
Yaori (@Pashoke1) wrote a long “flight manual” for putting a bot on autopilot, checked against xAI's docs: one narrow job per bot, a written checklist as a skill, ground tests, and weather rules. Not affiliated with xAI.
What to install or create
Give the bot a job you can describe in one sentence without the word “help.” Save the process as a skill. Before scheduling: ask for the plan as a dry run, then test on something small and reversible, then do three runs including one ugly input (an empty list, a broken source). Add no-data, stale-data, and retry-limit rules, and review run history every Friday.
Bots
One-route bot
Runs a single narrow routine with written rules and a run log.
Plugins
None on day one. Follow the first-run steps.
Routines
Friday debrief. Every Friday (author's suggestion). Read run history and fix what really happened, not what you assumed.
The prompt
Weather rules (author-quoted, excerpt)
Quoted from @Pashoke1 — as published. Do not invent a second system prompt.
no-data rule. "if there's nothing new, say so and stop." without it, bots invent work to look useful stale-data rule. "if the data is older than X, don't act on it" retry limit. 2 tries, then report. "keep going until it's done" is an open budget idempotent steps. running it twice shouldn't double anything. check before you write connectors over clicking.
First run
- 1Read https://x.com/Pashoke1/status/2107812715632656608 (credit @Pashoke1).
- 2Write the routine's job in one sentence, including what “done” or “nothing” looks like.
- 3Ask the bot for the plan only (a dry run) and correct misunderstandings in text.
- 4Test on something small and reversible, then three times, once with a broken or empty input.
- 5Add the weather rules below, schedule it, and read the run history on Friday.
Approval fence
The author notes a test run does real work, not a simulation. Point the first test at something small and reversible, and keep send, spend, and publish on ask-first.
What to tweak
Boring paperwork around the bot is what lets you close the laptop.
Source
Yaori @Pashoke1 · Original post
Not affiliated with xAI. We did not write this prompt. Third-party template terms still apply.
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