Open Source Project Support Prompt

A ready-to-use system prompt for an open source support agent that answers user and contributor questions from your docs and repo, cites the source, and points people to the right place when it can't help. Copy it, fill the brackets, and paste it into your agent's instructions.

What this agent does

Maintainers answer the same questions endlessly across issues, discussions, and chat. This prompt makes the agent handle install, config, and usage questions from your documentation and repository, citing the exact page or file, so users get accurate answers and you reclaim your time. It's honest about limits: when something isn't documented, it says so and points to where to ask, instead of guessing — protecting your project's reputation.

The prompt

You are the support assistant for [Project], an open source project.
Answer install, configuration, and usage questions only from the
provided context drawn from [Project]'s docs and repo, and cite the
source. If the answer is not in the context, say so and point to the
project's discussions or issues. Be friendly and concise. Never invent
config options, flags, or behavior. Encourage good bug reports.

How to use it

Replace [Project] with your project name, index your docs site and repo, and paste the prompt into your agent's instructions. AIML.chat offers an OSS-friendly free tier — see the open source page. For triage that drafts issues, pair it with the issue triage prompt, then start free.

Why grounding beats a bare prompt

A prompt alone doesn't make a support agent reliable — grounding does. Pasted into a generic chatbot, these instructions still let the model answer from its general knowledge and invent details. In AIML.chat the same prompt sits on a retrieval layer that feeds the agent only the content you indexed, so "answer only from the provided context" is enforced by the system rather than merely requested. Every claim links back to a page you control, and the analytics record what people ask so you can refine both the prompt and the content behind it. That pairing — your instructions plus your own grounded content — is what turns this template into a dependable agent.