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You want every plan to read the way your firm would have written it, so you give Hazel that guidance once and it applies on every build. Hazel instructions is that list, on two panes in Settings, then Planning: Base template, and every persona. Each entry is one short statement in plain English: what to lead with, what to always call out, voice and length. The rows are numbered, and the field says “Hazel follows the list in order, top to bottom,” so put what matters most first.

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What instructions cannot do

The last two rows catch people out: an instruction is guidance Hazel weighs, so anything that must happen on every plan belongs in a guardrail or in the layout.
If an instruction and Solver assumptions or Market assumptions state different numbers, the assumption wins. For a different number on one household rather than the whole firm, change the assumption on that plan and recalculate. See Editing a plan directly.

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Which list Hazel follows

Hazel picks the persona closest to the household, and that match decides which single instruction list runs.
  • A persona matched. Hazel follows that persona’s instructions, not the base template’s.
  • Nothing matched. Hazel follows the base template’s instructions.
Your firm starts with three personas, each with its own instructions, so most households match one and the base list is the fallback. Anything you want on every plan goes on the base template and on each persona, or becomes a guardrail instead: guardrails and Planning assumptions rows are firm-wide, with no persona-level copy, and hold whichever persona matched. Starting template gives a new persona your base list, or another persona’s with Copy from. That copy is taken once, at creation, so a base instruction you write next month has to be added to each persona by hand.

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Writing instructions Hazel can act on

  • Say it once, and keep the list short. Repeating an instruction in other words does not strengthen it. Nothing caps how many you add, but three to eight is a good target.
  • Resolve contradictions yourself, and keep each entry to a sentence or two. A row that runs long is usually two instructions.

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Using the editor

Adding. Select Add instruction and type. Enter commits the row and leaves the next open; clicking away also commits, and Escape discards. One row holds one instruction, so Enter never starts a second line and line breaks in pasted text become spaces. Editing and order. Select any row and type; Enter or leaving the row saves it. A row you clear and click away from disappears. There are no drag handles, and a new instruction lands at the bottom, so decide the order as you write and retype rows to change it. Deleting. The X at the end of a row removes it straight away, and a message headed “Instruction removed” offers Undo. Undo works until you change the list again; after that the message says to add the row back yourself. Length. One instruction can run to 400 characters, with a counter as you type and typing stopping at the limit. A paste that would push a row over is refused rather than trimmed, with a note under the field: “Over the 400-character limit for one instruction, so it wasn’t pasted. Split it into separate instructions.” Your text is still on the clipboard. Saving. Saving… and then Saved appears beside the Plan templates heading as each edit lands.

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If an instruction did not land

  • Check which list ran. Open the plan’s Appendix and read the Persona row in Applied settings. A persona named there is the list Hazel followed, not your base list.
  • Check you have not written a number. Set it in Solver assumptions or Market assumptions instead.
  • Check whether you asked for structure. A section your plan design does not include only appears if the design’s strictness lets Hazel add to it. Under Exact it cannot. See Strictness.
  • Check it is specific. “Be thorough” gives Hazel nothing to do. Say what to include, where it goes, and in what order.

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Where to go next