A trigger pattern is a linguistic signal that helps an agent decide when a particular tool invocation is appropriate. Prompt guidelines make these signals explicit instead of leaving timing to vague instructions such as “use when necessary.” section 2.3.2
Useful trigger patterns include:
- Explicit references: “What we discussed...” or “As I mentioned before...” section 2.3.2
- Time references: “What did we talk about yesterday?” or “Show me last week’s chat.” section 2.3.2
- Implicit references: “You suggested,” “We decided,” “My project,” or “That bug.” section 2.3.2
- Negative guides: avoid searching for timeless information, definitions, fundamental concepts, or established technical facts. section 2.3.2
Conversation-search decision
When a user asks, “What did we talk about yesterday?”, the time reference indicates that the conversation-search tool may be appropriate. When the user asks, “How do I write a for loop in Python?”, the timeless technical question indicates that searching is unnecessary. section 2.3.2
