Prompt-size profiles
Overview
mouaif provides four built-in system prompt profiles — very-small, average, extensive, and chat — to tailor how much context, guidance, and tool schema information is provided to the AI model.
Usage
Picking a profile
In the chat (at creation time) — open a fresh chat and pick from the dropdown at the top of the transcript (
Very small,Average,Extensive, orChat). Once the first message is sent, the choice is locked for that conversation to ensure consistent model behavior.For the whole project — configure
Default prompt stylein project settings. New chats inherit this default.Global default — set your preferred app-wide default in Settings → Defaults.
Reading the active profile
The active system prompt (the profile instructions plus any attached custom prompt) is displayed in an expandable System prompt card at the top of the chat transcript. Tap it anytime to inspect the exact instructions given to the model.
The expanded prompt wraps to the card's width — long lines fold rather than running off the card inside a horizontally scrolling box, so the instructions are readable on a phone. The same wrapping applies to the nested prompt card inside an expanded subagent card. Fenced code blocks in a reply are unaffected: they keep their own no-wrap, horizontally scrolling rendering.
The four profiles
| ID | Label | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
very-small | Very small | Shared core rules for concise answers, safe changes, progress, and verification. The smallest prompt; tools are listed in compact form and schemas are retrieved on demand. |
average | Average | The recommended default. Adds an explicit inspect/edit/verify workflow, precise file-editing guidance, and full tool schemas. |
extensive | Extensive | All Average guidance plus planning, regression testing, mobile UI checks, and concrete workflow examples. Uses the same full tool schemas. |
chat | Chat | A plain conversation: an empty system prompt and no tools checked. Agent files are off by default, as with Very small. |
The Chat profile
chat sends no profile system message. A new chat created with this profile starts with its tool list empty (chat.tools = []), so every tool is unchecked in the chat's Tools card. You can check tools there as with any chat. Switching an empty chat to chat unchecks every tool; switching it back to another profile restores all tools.
Shared behavior
Changing the profile adds detail, not a different set of permissions or safety rules. The three non-empty profiles (very-small, average, extensive) instruct the assistant to:
Answer concisely with project-relative paths and language-tagged code blocks.
Follow applicable project and custom instructions while respecting instruction priority.
Make reasonable, reversible decisions autonomously; ask when ambiguity affects scope, safety, or correctness.
Obtain explicit authorization for destructive actions, full-file rewrites, dependency installs, and pushes; preserve unrelated user work.
Use only enabled tools, respect authorization gates, and discover missing tool schemas before calling them.
Inspect before editing, keep changes focused, run relevant checks, and use non-interactive shell commands.
Report task start and completion when
report_progressis enabled. Completed work usesstatus: "completed"withcurrentequal tototal; blocked work usesstatus: "failed", not a false completion.Report actual results, unrun checks, and limitations without inventing project facts or exposing secrets.
Average and Extensive also distinguish implementation requests from questions/reviews: apply authorized changes for implementation, but do not edit files merely to answer a question. Their progress guidance uses real milestones and falls back to brief text when the progress tool is unavailable.
Chat integration
Layered instructions — system prompt profile instructions are placed first, followed by project custom prompts, and then the conversation turns.
Per-chat flexibility — you can choose different profiles for different tasks within the same codebase.
Related
Custom prompts — managing custom prompt presets.
Chat UI — the conversation interface.
App and project settings — defaults and configuration hierarchy.