Project assistants for research: set a role, method, and guardrails in plain English
research
Give each study its own AI assistant with its own rules. Here is how to write instructions that keep answers inside your sources and your method.
One assistant for every project tends to blur evidence. Giving each study its own assistant, with instructions you write yourself, keeps answers scoped and consistent.
What a project assistant is
A project assistant answers from the library of a single study. You describe its role, method, and guardrails in plain English; no prompt engineering is required.
What to include
- Role. What the assistant is helping with, such as a systematic review of sleep interventions.
- Method. How you want evidence handled, such as note sample sizes and study design.
- Guardrails. Limits like only use papers in this project, and say when the evidence is mixed.
An example
"You assist with a review of actigraphy studies. Use only papers in this project. Report sample size with each finding. If results conflict, say so rather than choosing one."
Why scoping helps
- Answers stay within the sources you chose.
- Lab members who share the project ask the same assistant and follow the same method.
- Mixed evidence gets flagged rather than smoothed over.
Pairing with the two modes
Use Instant for lookups and Thinking for synthesis. Both follow your guardrails and cite the paper and page behind each claim.
Human control stays central: you set the rules and you verify the sources. See Constella AI agents and Constella for researchers.