Prompts

Cook injects a set of model-facing prompt templates: the plan-mode reminders, the goal templates, and the built-in subagent bodies. Each one ships as the default in the prompts/ directory of the Cook source, compiled into the binary. You can override any of them with a copy under your Cook home, without rebuilding Cook, and reset it to the shipped text when you are done.

Where prompts live

Location	Role
`prompts/` in the Cook source tree	The shipped defaults. Compiled into the binary with `include_str!`; editing one requires rebuilding.
`~/.cook/prompts/`	Your copies. Same relative layout as `prompts/`; a file here overrides the matching default at the next turn.
`<workspace>/.cook/prompts/`	Project copies. Outrank `~/.cook/prompts/` for sessions in that workspace.

Precedence for a given template: project .cook/prompts/, then ~/.cook/prompts/, then the compiled default.

The relative paths are:

prompts/
  plan/contract.md                 active plan-mode contract (section order / checklist)
  goal/goal_rules.md               goal rules block
  goal/goal_rules_legacy.md        goal rules block (legacy)
  goal/goal_plan_block.md          plan block shown to a goal
  goal/goal_task_discipline.md     task-tracking discipline block
  goal/goal_continuation_directive.md        continuation directive
  goal/goal_continuation_directive_legacy.md continuation directive (legacy)
  goal/goal_planner_prompt.md      goal planner prompt
  goal/goal_strategist_prompt.md   goal strategist prompt
  goal/goal_summarizer_prompt.md   goal summarizer prompt
  goal/goal_verifier_prompt.md     goal verifier prompt
  goal/goal_verifier_resume_prompt.md  goal verifier resume prompt
  goal/goal_verifier_kind_lens_*.md    per-kind verifier lens
  subagent/plan.md                 built-in plan subagent body
  subagent/explore.md              built-in explore subagent body
  subagent/general-purpose.md      built-in general-purpose subagent body

Plan-mode gate reminders (plan/full.md, plan/sparse.md, plan/reentry.md, plan/exit.md, plan/edit-rejected.md) still ship in the repository and are injected at runtime, but they are not listed in Settings → Prompts. Copy one under ~/.cook/prompts/ only if you need a filesystem override outside the UI.

Editing a prompt

Desktop app

Open Settings → Prompts. The panel lists every editable template with a state:

State	Meaning
No copy	The shipped default is in use; no file exists under your Cook home yet.
Unmodified	A copy exists and still matches the shipped default.
Modified	A copy exists and differs; it overrides the default.

Select a template, press Edit, and save. Editing a template with no copy seeds the editor with the shipped text. Reset discards your copy and writes the shipped default back, byte for byte. Resetting is the only way to start receiving changes to that prompt from Cook updates; a file you edited is left alone.

Terminal app

Create the file yourself under ~/.cook/prompts/, mirroring the relative path:

mkdir -p ~/.cook/prompts/plan
cp prompts/plan/contract.md ~/.cook/prompts/plan/contract.md   # from a Cook checkout
$EDITOR ~/.cook/prompts/plan/contract.md

Cook picks up the change on the next turn; no restart is needed. Delete the file to fall back to the shipped default.

Things to know