Pro7 minute read· Updated 5 November 2026
Brief an AI assistant on your organisation: the context file
Write one context file that tells any AI assistant who you are, what you are eligible for and how you write, so every draft starts from your facts.
An assistant that knows nothing about you writes generic proposals and recommends calls you cannot apply for. The fix is the same one you use for a new hire: a written briefing. This guide shows you how to build one context file covering who you are, your eligibility facts, past projects with sourced numbers, CVs, boilerplate and voice rules, plus a decision log. It works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or a local model, and comes with a template you can copy.
Inside this playbook
- What you need
- 1. Decide what goes in and what stays out
- 2. Write the file in plain Markdown
- 3. State eligibility as hard facts
- 4. Record past projects with numbers and sources
- 5. Add people, boilerplate and voice
- 6. Keep a decision log
- 7. Load it into your assistant
- 8. Keep it current
- The template
- Checklist
- Further reading
Read the full playbook with Pro
Work from our playbooks: step-by-step guides to reaching funders, writing proposals and tender responses, and AI tools for your pipeline. Pro opens the full text of all 21 playbooks: the steps, the templates and prompts you can copy, and the checklists, alongside alerts, funder names and the funding flows log.
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