System Prompts

System prompts define the agent’s personality, behavior, and constraints. Each prompt is a Markdown file with YAML frontmatter in .aura/config/prompts/. The loader discovers all **/*.md files recursively — organize by purpose (e.g. system/, features/).

Frontmatter Schema

---
name: MyPrompt # Unique identifier. Referenced by agent `system:` field.
description: Purpose.
inherit: [Base] # Parent prompts — bodies concatenated in order.
---

Template Variables

The body is rendered as a Go template before being sent to the LLM. Sprig functions are available.

Variable	Description
{{ .Model.Name }}	Resolved model name
{{ .Model.Family }}	Model family string
{{ .Model.ParameterSize }}	Human parameter string (e.g. "8B")
{{ .Model.ContextLength }}	Context window length in tokens
{{ .Model.Thinking }}	Extended thinking supported (bool)
{{ .Model.Vision }}	Vision supported (bool)
{{ .Model.Tools }}	Tool use supported (bool)
{{ .Provider }}	Active provider name
{{ .Agent }}	Active agent name
{{ .Mode.Name }}	Active mode name
{{ .Tools.Eager }}	Resolved eager tool names (range-iterable)
{{ .Tools.Deferred }}	XML block listing deferred tools
{{ .Files }}	Autoloaded file entries from agent files:
{{ .Workspace }}	Injected AGENTS.md workspace instructions
{{ .Sandbox.Enabled }}	Sandbox enforcing (bool)
{{ .Sandbox.Display }}	Pre-rendered restriction text
{{ .ReadBefore.Write }}	Read-before-write enforced (bool)
{{ .ReadBefore.Delete }}	Read-before-delete enforced (bool)
{{ .ToolPolicy.Display }}	Pre-rendered tool policy text
{{ .Hooks.Active }}	Active hooks (range-iterable with .Name, .Description, .Event, .Matcher, .Files, .Command)
{{ .Hooks.Display }}	Pre-rendered hook summary text
{{ .Memories.Local }}	Local memory entries (.aura/memory/*.md)
{{ .Memories.Global }}	Global memory entries (~/.aura/memory/*.md)
{{ .Config.Global }}	Global config home (~/.aura)
{{ .Config.Project }}	Project config path
{{ .Config.Source }}	Agent’s source config home
{{ .LaunchDir }}	CWD at process start
{{ .WorkDir }}	Working directory after --workdir
{{ env "VAR" }}	Environment variable
{{ index .Vars "key" }}	Template variable from --set

Example:

Date: {{ now | date "2006-01-02" }}

{{ if .Tools.Eager -}}
Tools:
{{ range .Tools.Eager }}- {{ . }}
{{ end }}
{{ end -}}

Inheritance

Child body is appended after parent bodies. Duplicate parents are resolved once.

# prompts/system/base.md
---
name: Base
---
You are Aura, a coding assistant.

# prompts/system/agentic.md
---
name: Agentic
inherit: [Base]
---
## Critical Rules
1. Complete every task before stopping.

Result: Base body + "\n\n" + Agentic body.

Multi-parent: inherit: [A, B] produces A body + B body + self body.

Note: agents and modes use replace semantics (child body replaces parent if non-empty). Prompts always concatenate.

Composition

System prompts act as compositors that control the order of all prompt components. Use these directives at the end of your system prompt:

{{ template "agent" . }}

{{ range .Files }}
### {{ .Name }}
{{ include .TemplateName $ }}
{{ end }}

{{ range .Workspace }}
## {{ .Type }}
{{ include .TemplateName $ }}
{{ end }}

{{ if .Mode.Name }}
## Active Mode: {{ .Mode.Name }}
{{ template "mode" . }}
{{ end }}

You can reorder or omit components. When an agent has system: "", a default compositor is used that includes agent, files, workspace, and mode in the standard order.

Shipped Prompts

Name	Directory	Purpose
Agentic	system/	Full agentic coding prompt
Chat	system/	Conversational — discourages proactive tool use
Lite	system/	Stripped-down agentic prompt for smaller models
Compaction	features/	Summarizes conversation for context handoff
Thinking	features/	Thinking block summarization

Feature prompts are used internally by the compaction and thinking systems via the prompt: field in feature config.