Agent Task Template
A reusable AI agent task template with variables for objective, context, available tools, constraints, success criteria, failure handling, and output format.
Overview
Vague agent task prompts produce either excessive confirmation-seeking or unconstrained execution — neither of which is useful in a real workflow. This template encodes everything an agent needs to act autonomously: the objective stated as an outcome, the tools it can use, explicit boundaries on what it should not do, and measurable success criteria so it can self-assess before completing the task. The failure handling variable prevents the agent from silently delivering incomplete results when it hits a blocker.
Workflow
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Define objective as an outcome, not a process
The objective variable should describe what done looks like, not what to do. 'Produce a structured comparison of three vendor proposals with a recommendation' is an outcome. 'Research vendors' is a process.
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Fill in the template variables
Open in Prompt Template Builder. Variables: agentRole, objective, context, availableTools, constraints, successCriteria, failureHandling, outputFormat.
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Write testable success criteria
Success criteria should be verifiable by the agent without asking you. 'The output includes a recommendation with reasoning' is testable. 'The output is good' is not.
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Specify failure handling explicitly
The failureHandling variable prevents silent failure. Tell the agent what to do when it hits a blocker: 'If a source is unavailable, note it and continue with remaining sources' is more useful than no instruction.
Why This Works
- Requiring the agent to confirm its understanding of the objective before executing surfaces misinterpretations before they result in wasted work
- Explicit constraints prevent well-intentioned agents from taking actions that are outside the intended scope — the most common source of agentic failures
- Testable success criteria allow the agent to self-assess rather than relying on the human to determine if the task is complete
- Failure handling instructions eliminate the silent failure mode where the agent delivers a partial result without flagging what is missing
Best for
- Multi-step tasks where the agent needs to make decisions without constant human input
- Workflows where you want explicit confirmation of understanding before execution starts
- Tasks with clear success criteria that the agent can evaluate its own output against
- Recurring agent tasks that benefit from a stable, reusable prompt structure
Not for
- Simple single-turn requests — the structure overhead isn't justified for quick lookups
- Tasks requiring real-time tool access you haven't configured in the agent environment
- Situations where the constraints or success criteria cannot be specified in advance
Use cases
- Dispatching an agent to research, summarize, and structure content from multiple sources
- Running an automated review or audit task with explicit pass/fail criteria
- Building a reusable task template for a recurring agent workflow in your team
- Testing agent behavior with consistent task prompts across different models