The era of just polishing prompts is over. Next is the topic of 'AI Handover Documents'
The reading order for this series
This article is a step forward from the previous free note.
Last time, I talked about not relying solely on AI memory, but also keeping important things for yourself.
If you haven't read it yet, it's here.
Free note ①
'AI forgets if you leave it alone. — How just making it remember changes your partner'
https://note.com/keikeigo/n/nc96f112a3216
In this free note ②, we will move on to:
'So, what should be kept, and how do you pass it on to a new AI?'
We will proceed to that point.
I was looking for the god-tier prompt
Until a little while ago, I thought that if I didn't get a good answer from the AI, it was because my prompt was bad.
I have to write more specifically.
I have to find a better way to phrase it.
If I use a 'god-tier prompt' that someone is sharing, wouldn't I get an amazing answer?
In fact, I tried various things.
But all I got back were answers that were 'not wrong, but somehow not quite right.'
It's beautifully plated.
But it's not the taste I wanted to eat.
Even though I should have been ordering from the world's best chef, what came out was a mediocre chain-store curry.
That's when I finally realized.
The problem wasn't just how you phrased your order.
A prompt is what connects your 'purpose' to 'yourself'.
A prompt is not a magic spell.
As I see it, the role of a prompt is this:
An instruction that connects 'what you want to do' and 'who you are' to delegate work to AI.
What was needed were these three things:
1. Purpose
What do you want to create?
What do you want to achieve by creating it?
2. Context
What kind of person are you?
Who do you want to reach?
What do you value, and what do you not want to do?
3. Prompt
Using that purpose and context, what do you want the AI to do?
If any one of these is thin, the answer will only be mediocre.
For example, asking 'Make me a website'.
This is a discussion about the means.
But if your true goal is 'to increase store sales', a website might not be what you need.
It might be Instagram.
It might be a Google Maps review.
It might be a notice to existing customers.
If you ask for a method without conveying the purpose, the AI will try its best to answer within that narrow scope.
It is not the AI's fault.
You haven't provided the ingredients.
What should be deepened is not the spell, but the 'purpose' and 'yourself'.
It is easy to understand if you think about cooking.
'Make curry' is an order.
However,
who will be eating it
are they okay with spicy food
what is the budget
what is in the refrigerator
how do you want them to feel today
If you know this much, the chef can make a proposal that is much better suited to you.
If the goal is to make your family happy,
'Wouldn't fried chicken be better than curry today?'
They might even question the method itself.
What I was looking for in an AI was not someone who makes the dish I asked for, but a partner who thinks about the menu together starting from the purpose.
To do that, I had to provide the purpose and information about myself.
However, AI does not remember everything on its own
If you keep the conversation going, the AI will understand everything about you.
I also thought that at one point.
But how AI remembers and carries over conversations differs depending on the service and settings.
Sometimes it remembers previous conversations, and other times it doesn't carry over well in a different chat.
If you use a new AI, you start from the self-introduction again.
Therefore, instead of leaving it solely to the AI's memory, you need to keep your own information yourself.
That is where the brief comes in.
Since it sounds difficult, I decided to call it this:
Brief = A 'handover document' to pass to the AI
Your background, goals, values, strengths, weaknesses, and rules you want to keep.
Organize that into one sheet and pass the necessary parts to the AI.
If a prompt is 'today's order', a brief is 'a handover document written with the store's policy and the customer's preferences'.
Even if a new AI comes out, you don't have to start from zero
Every time a new AI comes out,
'Which one is the most amazing?'
I wonder.
But you can't tell if it suits you just by looking at performance charts or someone else's impressions.
Try passing the same brief and asking for the same work.
Then,
Is it close to my own words?
Does it understand the purpose?
Does it follow important rules?
Can it propose solutions without assuming the method?
Does it avoid filling in gaps on its own?
You can compare these based on your own criteria.
A brief is not only a self-introduction, but also a common test for trying out new AIs as well.
Instead of adjusting yourself to the AI, pass the same 'you' to the AI and choose which AI suits you.
I believe this way of thinking will become more important as the number of AIs increases.
When I looked into it, the creators were heading in the same direction
Having thought this far,
I doubted,
'Is this really just my own idea?'
I checked, and found that the concept of 'context engineering' was spreading among those building AI.
In September 2025, Anthropic explained that AI utilization is moving beyond just word choice in prompts toward organizing 'what information to pass to the AI'.
OpenAI's official guide also shows how to design the content passed to AI by dividing it into 'roles', 'instructions', 'examples', and 'background information'.
Microsoft's 2025 research also states that what people working with AI need from now on is the ability to convey purpose and background, not accept the first answer as is, and find and correct weak points.
Of course, this doesn't mean my thinking is absolutely correct.
However, the direction I arrived at through my own use overlapped with the direction the creators are pointing toward.
In that case, I thought it was at least worth trying once.
As I explained myself to the AI, I began to see myself clearly
And there was another great value in the brief.
In order to explain myself to the AI,
what I value
what I am good at and what I am bad at
who I want to deliver what to
why I am doing it
what I do not want to do
must be put into words.
Usually, these are things I would just settle for in my head with a 'well, something like this'.
But when I try to convey it to the AI, I end up thinking, 'What does that mean specifically?'
By putting them into words one by one, my thoughts became organized.
For me, creating a brief was not about setting up the AI.
It was a process of organizing my work, my purpose, and my criteria for judgment.
While trying to make the AI understand me, I was able to understand myself first.
I think this is especially valuable for those in business.
Because it serves not only as a handover document for the AI, but also as a handover document to return to when I am lost.
People used by AI and people who use AI
AI will become even more convenient.
The number of things that can be automated will also increase.
However, if you assume that all of AI's answers and suggestions are correct, you might lose sight of where you are heading.
People who are used by AI, and people who use AI.
I don't think the difference lies only in how well you operate it.
It's about whether you have your own purpose and criteria, and can choose AI's answers based on whether they align with your goals.
Just handing over a brief doesn't guarantee a correct answer.
But if your own core principles are put into words, it becomes easier to question, compare, and select AI's answers.
As AI performance improves, the difference might not just be 'how much you know about AI,' but 'how well you can explain yourself.'
Prompts will not disappear
That is why I do not think 'prompts are over'.
To be precise,
the era where we thought that just polishing prompts would yield amazing answers is starting to end.
Prompts will continue to be necessary.
However, they are not magic spells.
They are instructions to connect your deepened purpose with organized context.
What needs to be deepened is not just the phrasing.
It is yourself and your purpose.
And what I consider a brief is something that puts that into a form that can be handed over to AI.
The next era may not be one of collecting prompts, but an era of having your own handover document.
To those who want to create their own handover document
Having read this far,
“So, what should I write about myself?”
I think some of you might have thought that. I stopped there too.
Even though you think you know yourself best, it is actually the hardest thing to write about.
So, I stopped trying to write a perfect self-introduction on my own.
I had the AI ask me questions one by one and draw out my information through conversation.
You can read the free portion of this paid article.
Just because it is a paid article does not mean you are charged the moment you open it.
In the free public section, you can take away the following:
Why trying 'god-tier' prompts often leads to average results
The three things to pass to AI: 'Purpose, Personal Information, and Request'
A way of thinking to find the cause of shallow AI answers
What will be completed in the paid section
First, read the free section and see if it is necessary for you.
For those who want to create their own personal sheet
If you want to organize your purpose, experience, values, and judgment criteria while actually having the AI ask you questions, I have summarized it here.
For those whose AI answers are off-base. How to create your own personal 'AI Handover Document'If you don't need it, you don't have to buy it.
What you will complete upon purchase
In the paid section, you will actually complete one 'AI Handover Document' specifically for you while having the AI ask you questions.
A 'Personal Ledger' that summarizes your overall profile
'Task-specific handover documents' that can be used for each job
A checklist to compare new AIs under the same conditions
15 practical prompts with kitchen-table language to use in necessary situations
What is being sold is not knowledge, but the experience of creating an AI consultant that understands you.
Three roles
Free 1: Building a habit of saving important information
Free 2: Understanding the meaning of turning your goals and yourself into a 'handover document'
Paid: Having the AI ask you questions to actually complete your own personalized handover document
About this text
*This is something I, not an AI expert, realized after spending over half a year taking the long way around.
Since the world of AI changes rapidly, I do not intend to force this as the only correct answer.
Please read it while questioning, 'Is this really true?'
That is how I myself interact with AI.
Official information referenced
Anthropic, "Effective context engineering for AI agents"
https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/effective-context-engineering-for-ai-agents
OpenAI, "Prompt engineering"
https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/prompt-engineering
Microsoft, "2025: The year the Frontier Firm is born"
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/2025-the-year-the-frontier-firm-is-born
*This does not mean that each company refers to their explanations as 'briefs' as they are. In this article, I use the term 'AI Handover Document' to explain context design, a term used in specialized fields, in a way that is easy for beginners to understand.