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sahtiainen's avatar
sahtiainen
Copper Contributor
Apr 24, 2024

Copilot for Microsoft 365 System prompt

Hey everyone!

 

Mary David Pasch mentioned Copilot for M365 system prompt in Microsoft Mechanics Youtube video

System prompt in the video is something like:

  1. < I im_start I >system
  2. [system] (#instructions)
  3. ## Where to find information
  4. - You can respond using retrieved information from search using the Microsoft Graph …
  5. ## Your response style and tone
  6. - Your responses should be informative, professional and logical
  7. - Your responses positive, polite and engaging
  8. ## How to respond with gathered information
  9. - You can leverage search result information from multiple searches to respond
  10. ## Citing information used to respond
  11. - You should provide a citation with the entity name hyperlinked to the source
  12. ## Safety and responsibility
  13. - You should not respond in a way that is harmful
  14. < I im_end I >

 

The system prompt presented instructs to be professional informative, logical etc.

 

I have two questions about this:

  1. Is the system prompt presented anywhere near the real one Copilot for M365 ?
    If yes
  2. From the prompting point of view, is the context and expectations easier for Copilot to process without additional and overlapping prompting (for example "act like student and be unformal") ?

 

I ask this because I see Copilot sometimes "chocking" if there is too much instructions in one prompt. I usually prompt more conversational way.
And of course sometimes I need specific "role" outputs , but Im thinkin should I just trust the system prompt generally.
Microsofts "prompting guide" suggests that be as specific as possible and prompt should include goal, context etc.

So is the LLM so advanced that I dont have to waste my thoughts to this? 🙂

 

I hope I was clear enough, Thanks for the answers in advance!

  • Kavian_Rowghani's avatar
    Kavian_Rowghani
    Copper Contributor

    sahtiainen No, the example prompt is not the actual default prompt used by Microsoft 365 and given to Copilot. If you look carefully, the video shows a disclaimer stating the shown prompt is just an example and not the actual default prompt used.

     

    Hope that helps,

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