windmill/system_prompts/README.md

System Prompts

This directory contains the single source of truth for AI system prompts used by both the frontend copilot and CLI guidance.

Structure

system_prompts/
├── base/              # Core instruction templates (manually written)
│   ├── flow-base.md   # Shared OpenFlow structure guidance
│   └── flow-cli.md    # CLI/local-agent workflow guidance for write-flow skill
├── languages/         # Language-specific instructions (manually written)
└── auto-generated/    # Auto-generated files (DO NOT EDIT)
    ├── sdks/          # SDK documentation
    ├── cli/           # CLI command documentation
    ├── prompts.ts     # TypeScript exports
    └── index.ts       # Helper functions

Usage

Regenerating Prompts

When SDK methods or the OpenFlow schema change, run:

python system_prompts/generate.py

To also refresh the standalone skills in a Claude plugin checkout:

python system_prompts/generate.py --plugin-dir ~/windmill-claude-plugin

--plugin-dir accepts:

• the windmill-claude-plugin repo root
• a plugin root such as plugins/windmill
• a direct skills/ directory

To regenerate the public docs repo (consumed by context7):

python system_prompts/generate.py --context7-dir ~/windmill-cli-docs

--context7-dir writes a fully-rendered snapshot (AGENTS.md, cli-commands.md, skills/<name>/SKILL.md, README.md, manifest.json with the Windmill version) with all template placeholders resolved — suitable for ingestion by docs aggregators. In CI this runs from .github/workflows/publish-cli-docs.yml on every release tag. The generator refuses to wipe the target directory unless it's empty or has a context7 marker (context7.json, manifest.json, or a windmill-cli-docs git remote), so a typo can't delete unrelated files.

This will:

1. Parse TypeScript and Python SDK files to extract function signatures
2. Parse the OpenFlow YAML schema
3. Parse the CLI commands
4. Assemble complete prompts from markdown files
5. Generate TypeScript exports in auto-generated/
6. Optionally refresh plugin-ready standalone SKILL.md files in the target directory

Scope

These system prompts contain ONLY:

• How to write Windmill scripts (language syntax, conventions, SDK usage)
• How to structure Windmill flows (OpenFlow schema, module types, data flow)
• Resource type handling, S3 operations

They DO NOT contain:

• Tool usage instructions (edit_code, set_flow_json, etc.)
• IDE/editor specific commands
• Testing tool invocations

Tool instructions are added separately by the frontend and CLI.

CLI-only workflow instructions live in base/flow-cli.md and are included in the generated write-flow skill for wmill init. They are intentionally excluded from the frontend flow chat prompt.

Integration

Frontend

Uses Vite path alias $system_prompts pointing to auto-generated/:

import { FLOW_GUIDANCE } from "$system_prompts/flow";
import { getLangContext } from "$system_prompts/languages";

CLI

Generates /cli/src/guidance/skills.gen.ts with embedded skill content for wmill init.

Editing Guidelines

• Edit markdown files in base/, languages/
• Never edit files in auto-generated/ directly
• After editing, run generate.py to update exports