Your own prompts

Wherever Parseh hands you a prompt to paste into a chatbot, the words are Parseh’s own, written for that job. You can keep prompts of your own beside them: a rule you always want (never gloss proper names, prefer British spellings), or a whole prompt written your way. Each has a name, is kept on this computer, is offered wherever it makes sense, and is used when you choose it at the button that copies the prompt. Parseh’s own prompts are never changed or deleted by any of this: yours stand beside them, and choosing Parseh’s again is one click.

A prompt is only text that you copy and carry to a chatbot yourself: writing one, or choosing it, runs no model and sends nothing. Your prompts change what you copy, and nothing else.

1. Where there is a prompt#

Every place that hands out a prompt has its own list of yours:

The prompt for	Where you copy it
a new document	the LLM prompt page
exercises for a page	Exercises ▾ → Generate with LLM… in the editor (Exercises in the editor)
a video from its transcript	the add page (Adding a video)
a transcript, tidied	or with an LLM… in the add page’s subtitle editor (Mending the transcript first)
a stretch of a video	gloss with an LLM in the player (Glossing with an LLM)
a stretch of a book	gloss with an LLM in the reader (Glossing with an LLM)
one sentence	Ask LLM in the sources sidebar (Ask LLM)
a book made by an agent	the make-a-book page (Adding a book)

A prompt you wrote for one of these is offered only there: a prompt for a stretch of a video does not appear at the button for a stretch of a book.

Every button that copies a prompt has a menu in front of it, prompt: Parseh’s ▾, and three small buttons: new, edit and delete. The menu lists Parseh’s own prompt for that place and yours, and the one chosen is the one the button copies; the size said under the button is its size. On the add page, where the prompt is prepared before there is a button to copy it with, the menu is above Prepare the prompt, with the choices that belong to it. A place where the computer has no prompts of yours to offer (it does not answer) has no menu, and the prompt is Parseh’s own.

new.: Opens an editor under the buttons (in the exercise dialog, at the top of what scrolls): a name, what it is (added after Parseh’s instructions, the default, or in place of Parseh’s instructions, which begins as a copy of Parseh’s own words), which language (every one, or one) and the text. Under the text it lists the names Parseh fills in, each a button that puts it where the cursor is, and shows, greyed, what stays Parseh’s.
save.: Keeps it, chooses it, and from then on the button copies it. A name Parseh does not fill in, or a name that another prompt of yours has for the place, is refused in words, and nothing is kept.
edit.: Opens the prompt chosen as it was saved. save keeps the changes; save as… asks for a name and keeps what is written as a new prompt, leaving the first as it was. The button copies the prompt as it was last saved, and the editor says when what you typed is not saved yet.
delete.: Asks first, in the row (delete “name”? it cannot be got back), and then Parseh’s own is chosen again. edit and delete are off while Parseh’s own is chosen: it is never changed or deleted from here.
close.: Leaves the editor, and asks before it throws away what you changed. Esc does the same, and leaves what is round the editor (the transcript being mended, the sidebar) as it was.

The menu remembers on this device which prompt was used last, for each place; one that has gone, or is for another language than the page’s, is Parseh’s own again. The prompts are yours on every device that is let in; what each device has chosen is its own.

A prompt in place of Parseh’s whose starting words Parseh has changed since says so under the buttons: Parseh’s prompt changed since you started from it. see what changed shows the lines, what Parseh added marked + and what it took away marked -; mine stands says that yours stands as it is, and the note goes. If another device deletes the prompt you have chosen, the row says it is gone and Parseh’s own is chosen.

3. Two kinds#

Added to Parseh’s.: What a new prompt is. Your text goes after Parseh’s instructions, so Parseh’s rules all still stand and yours say what to do besides: Never gloss proper names. Prefer British spellings in the meanings. Explain the grammar of each phrase in one line, in note.
In place of Parseh’s.: Your text is the instructions, and Parseh’s are left out. A new prompt of this kind starts as a copy of Parseh’s own instructions, so you never write from a blank page: change what you want and keep the rest.

4. What stays Parseh’s#

Whatever you write, two things come after it, and they are Parseh’s and locked:

the answer contract: : the shape the answer has to have, and how to send it (one fenced block, the JSON keys, several messages, the later block wins, a file or a fence);
the data: : the captions, the chunks, the page, the question.

That is what lets Parseh check and file the answer, however you asked for it: an answer to your prompt lands exactly as an answer to Parseh’s own. The editor shows both greyed under your text, so you see what goes with it, and the data is said in one line (then the stretch of the video, as one JSON document) rather than filled with a real one.

Two places have no contract, because nothing there is read back by Parseh: Ask LLM and a book made by an agent. In those the whole text may be yours.

5. Placeholders#

A prompt may name things Parseh fills in when it is copied. A name is written between double braces, and the editor lists, for the place you are writing for, every name it may use and what it stands for. The ones every place has:

Written	Filled in with
`{{LANGUAGE}}`	the language’s name, in English (Persian)
`{{LANGUAGE_NATIVE}}`	its name in itself
`{{LANGUAGE_CODE}}`	its code (fa)
`{{TR_LABEL}}`	what its transliteration is called (transliteration, pinyin, rōmaji), or IPA where the prompt asks for it

A place that asks for a transliteration (the studio’s two, a video or a book from scratch, a stretch of either) also has {{TR_SCHEME}}, the scheme it is written in (IPA, or the usual rōmaji scheme for Japanese); the places that write or read a book’s or a video’s own text have {{MARKS_RULE}}, what is asked of the short vowels in Persian and Arabic (write the short vowels in fa, or leave fa as it is), and nothing in a language that has none.

Where a gloss language is involved (the video and book prompts, and Ask LLM) there are also the language the meanings are written in ({{GLOSS_LANGUAGE}}, {{GLOSS_CODE}}), and each place has names of its own (a stretch has {{FIELD_LIST}} and {{UNITS}}; a video from its transcript has {{TR_RULE}}; the tidy has {{MARKS}}). A name Parseh does not fill in for that place is refused when you save, in words that name it: {{NOPE}} is not something Parseh fills in for this prompt. It fills in: …

A part of a prompt may be kept for one kind of place only, between {{?video}} and {{/video}} (or book, studio), and the prompts that begin as a copy of Parseh’s carry such blocks: leave them as they are and the prompt still fits both the book and the video. The two choices beside the copy button have blocks of their own: {{?ipa}}…{{/ipa}} is kept while the transliteration is asked for in IPA and {{?classic}}…{{/classic}} while it is in the language’s usual scheme; {{?marks}}…{{/marks}} while the short vowels are to be written and {{?nomarks}}…{{/nomarks}} while the text is left as it is (neither in a language without short vowels). The editor says which a place can use. A double brace that is none of these cannot be part of your text; write it with a space between the braces.

6. For every language, or for one#

A prompt is for every language unless you mark it for one, and then it is offered only there: your rule for Persian is not at the button for a video in Italian. A prompt marked for a language is refused, in words, if asked for another.

7. Its name#

A name is a few words on one line, at most 60 characters, and each place has one prompt of that name (upper and lower case count the same). The line every copied prompt opens with says which prompt made it:

text

Parseh prompt · video-region · fa → en · <the version> · no marks · custom: British spellings

so an answer can always be traced to the words that asked for it. What the choices beside the copy button came to stands before the name (IPA, marks, no marks), because the name is your own text and goes last.

8. Keeping up with Parseh#

A prompt in place of Parseh’s remembers which of Parseh’s prompts, and which version of its words, it began from. When Parseh’s own has changed since (a new Parseh, better words), the prompt says so, and its editor shows what changed: a line by line difference, what Parseh added and what it took away. You can bring the changes into your text, or say that yours stands as it is, and the note goes.

A prompt added to Parseh’s never says it: Parseh’s instructions come first each time, as they are now.

9. Where they are kept#

In config/prompts.json, on the computer Parseh runs on, so they follow you to every device that is let in: what you write on the computer is at the button on your phone, and the other way round. Updating Parseh keeps them, as it keeps your settings (Updating Parseh). An older Parseh does not read the file and ignores it. They are not in a book’s or a library’s backup: export the ones you would hate to lose.

10. Export and import#

Each prompt is exported as a file of its own, and any Parseh reads it back. On Settings → Your prompts, Export beside a prompt downloads it (British-spellings.parseh-prompt.json), and Import a prompt… takes one. An import never writes over a prompt: one whose name you already have for that place is kept as British spellings (2), and the page says so. A file that is not a prompt Parseh reads is refused in words and nothing is kept: a file that is not a prompt at all, one made by a newer Parseh, one that names what Parseh does not fill in.

11. Settings → Your prompts#

Settings → Your prompts lists every prompt of yours by the place it is for, each with what it is (added or in place of, for which language, how long, when it changed) and its words, folded until you ask to read them. From there you export one, delete one (asked in the row, never at once) or import one. Any device that has been let in may do all of it, from a phone as from the computer: what a prompt says is text you copy, and decides nothing Parseh runs.

Making and editing a prompt is not done there but at the button that copies the prompt, in the prompt: Parseh’s ▾ menu beside it: it lists Parseh’s prompt for that place and yours, and new, edit, save, save as… and delete work on yours. What you choose there is what the button copies, and the menu remembers on this device which you used last.

12. The studio’s old custom prompt#

Before a0.4.2 the studio kept one custom prompt, a file in its library (_prompt.md). The first time a0.4.2 starts, it moves into your prompts as my studio prompt (from before a0.4.2), for the studio’s prompt, in place of Parseh’s; the file is taken out of the library, and it is moved once and never again. It is a prompt like the others: rename it, edit it, export it or delete it. Nothing chooses it for you: it is in the menu of the studio’s prompt page under that name. It has none of the boxes’ blocks, so it is copied whole and the boxes are greyed (see the LLM prompt page).