Hi everyone. I’ve been lurking for a while, learning a ton from the workflows shared here, but I’m finally posting because I’ve hit a snag and I’m wondering if it’s just me.
I rely heavily on very detailed custom instructions to keep my coding assistant aligned with our marketing automation stack—think specific formatting for email copy blocks, rules for A/B test hypothesis generation, and a strict preference for data-driven justifications. After the latest platform update rolled out earlier this week, I’ve noticed a persistent and frustrating degradation in adherence.
It’s not a complete ignore, but it’s consistently “forgetting” or misapplying key parts. For example:
* My instruction to **“always present two distinct subject line options for any promotional email, with a brief rationale for each”** is now being followed only about half the time. The other half, I get a single subject line with no alternatives.
* The directive to **“structure any proposed landing page tool integration as a bulleted list of steps, with the required data point listed first”** is now producing paragraph-style descriptions, burying the crucial data requirement.
* A core rule to **“avoid speculative language; if an attribution model is suggested, it must be tied to a known platform capability (e.g., ‘first-touch in Segment’)”** is being bypassed, resulting in vague recommendations.
I’ve done all the standard troubleshooting: cleared my browser cache, tried different browsers, and even painstakingly re-copied my instructions from my backup document into a fresh session. The problem seems to recur after a few exchanges, as if the context window for the instructions is being prematurely truncated.
My main questions for the community are:
* Is anyone else in the marketing automation or data analytics space experiencing similar slippage with their custom instructions post-update?
* If so, have you found any effective workarounds or a new phrasing structure that seems more resilient?
* Could this be related to a change in how the system parses longer, more complex instruction sets? Mine is quite detailed (approx. 450 words).
I’m hesitant to simplify my instructions too much, as the specificity is what makes them valuable for my daily work in segmentation and deliverability analysis. Any shared experiences or diagnostic tips would be greatly appreciated.
~Heidi