Prompt Tips
Get better results from Nebula with these prompt tips — learn how to write clear requests, chain tasks, use agents, and automate workflows.
You don't need special syntax to use Nebula. Just say what you want in plain language. That said, a few patterns consistently produce better results.
Be specific about what you want
Vague requests get vague answers. Tell Nebula exactly what output you expect.
Tell me about our competitors.
Could you clarify which competitors you'd like me to research, and what specific information you're looking for?
Search Twitter for mentions of Acme Corp, Linear, and Notion from the last 7 days. Summarize the sentiment and top complaints for each.
Searching Twitter for competitor mentions...
Here's the breakdown:
Acme Corp: Mostly positive (78%). Top complaint: slow mobile app. Linear: Very positive (91%). Minor gripe: missing calendar view. Notion: Mixed (62%). Top complaints: performance on large databases, AI features feel bolted on.
The second prompt works better because it names the competitors, specifies the time range, and says exactly what output to produce.
Chain multiple steps in one request
Nebula handles multi-step tasks well. You don't need to break things into separate messages.
Read the last 50 messages in #product-feedback on Slack, categorize them by theme, count how many mentions each theme gets, and post a summary to #team.
Reading #product-feedback...
Posting categorized summary to #team...
Done! 50 messages grouped into 6 themes. Top three: onboarding confusion (14), mobile requests (11), and API rate limits (8). Full breakdown posted to #team.
Specify format and length
If you want a particular format, say so. Nebula defaults to paragraphs, but it can produce bullet points, tables, code, emails, tweets — whatever you need.
- "Give me a bullet-point list, max 5 items"
- "Write a 3-tweet thread"
- "Format this as a markdown table with columns for name, price, and rating"
- "Keep it under 100 words"
- "Write this as an email to a non-technical audience"
Use @ mentions for specific agents
When you have multiple agents, you can direct requests to a specific one using @agent-name.
@slack-agent What were the most active channels this week?
Analyzing channel activity...
Top 3 most active channels this week: #general (234 messages), #engineering (189), and #product-feedback (147).
You don't always need to @ mention — Nebula automatically delegates to the right agent when it's obvious. But explicit mentions help when the task could go to multiple agents.
Ask Nebula to automate it
Once you get a result you like, tell Nebula to make it recurring. You don't need to learn a separate automation system.
That competitor report was great. Run it every Monday at 8am and post to #research.
Creating scheduled trigger: Mondays at 8:00 AM.
Scheduled! Every Monday at 8 AM, I'll search for competitor mentions on Twitter and post a fresh summary to #research.
Give context when it matters
Nebula doesn't know your internal terminology, company context, or preferences unless you tell it. For recurring needs, add context to your agent instructions so you don't have to repeat yourself.
When I say 'the dashboard', I mean our internal Grafana instance at grafana.company.com. When I ask for metrics, default to the last 7 days unless I say otherwise.
Got it — I'll remember that 'the dashboard' refers to your Grafana instance and default to 7-day windows for metrics.
Prompts you can copy right now
Here are high-value prompts to try immediately:
Research:
- "Search for the top 5 trending topics in [your industry] this week and summarize each in one paragraph"
- "Compare [Product A] vs [Product B] — pricing, features, and reviews"
Productivity:
- "Read #standup on Slack and post a summary of blockers to #team"
- "Find all open GitHub issues labeled 'bug', prioritize by age, and post the list to #engineering"
Automation:
- "Every morning at 9am, search for news about [topic] and post a digest to #general"
- "When someone posts in #support on Slack, draft a helpful reply and send it to me for review"
Content:
- "Write a tweet thread about [topic], aimed at developers, with a hook and CTA"
- "Draft a weekly email update for the team summarizing what shipped this week"
Not sure how to phrase something? Just try it — Nebula will ask for clarification if it needs more detail. You can also ask "What can you do?" for a quick overview.
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