My Agent’s Report Formatting Keeps Changing Between Runs — How Do I Make It Consistent?

This happens because formatting instructions given in a conversation only apply to that conversation — they don’t carry over to future runs. To make formatting stick permanently, save your formatting rules into a skill. Skills act as persistent playbooks that your agent follows every time, across every run and every region.

Symptoms

• You fix the formatting of a report in one conversation, but the next scheduled run produces a different layout.

• A report looks correct for one region or brand but comes out differently for another.

• Your agent adds extra sections, changes column order, or uses a different style than what you agreed on.

• You feel like you’re re-prompting the same formatting fix every time.

Cause

Each agent conversation starts with a clean slate. When you tell your agent “group the styles and add thumbnail images” in a chat, that instruction lives only in that conversation’s context. The next time the agent runs — whether it’s a scheduled trigger, a different region’s version of the same report, or a new chat — it doesn’t have access to what you said before.

Skills solve this. A skill is a persistent set of instructions that gets loaded into the agent’s context at the start of every conversation. When your formatting rules are in a skill, they’re always available — not just in the conversation where you first described them.

How to Fix It

Option 1: Ask your agent to save the formatting rules to a skill

The fastest way. In the same conversation where the formatting looks right, tell your agent to save what it did.

Example prompts you can try right now:

• “The formatting of this report is exactly what I want. Save these formatting rules as a skill called ‘report-formatting’ so every future report follows the same layout.”

• “Create a skill called ‘output-standards’ that defines: always group by style, include thumbnail images, use this exact column order, and never add extra sections I didn’t ask for.”

• “Update the ‘output-standards’ skill to also include: always use a summary table at the top, bold the header row, and limit to 50 rows per section.”

Your agent will create (or update) a skill file that persists across all future conversations. You can verify it was created by visiting your Skills page.

Note: This only works if your agent has the Skill Editing & Creation toggle turned on (it’s on by default). You can find this toggle in your agent’s settings under Tools.

Option 2: Create the skill yourself from the Skills page

If you prefer to write the rules manually, or your agent’s skill editing is turned off:

1. Go to your Skills page.

2. Click Create Skill → Create With AI.

3. Describe your formatting requirements. For example: “I need a skill that defines the standard format for all our merchandising reports. It should require: grouped by style, thumbnail images in column A, summary metrics at the top, no additional sections beyond what’s specified.”

4. The AI assistant will draft the skill for you. Review it and click Save.

5. Attach the skill to your agent in the agent’s settings under Tools → Skills.

See Agent Skills in the docs for a full walkthrough of creating and managing skills.

Option 3: Add universal formatting rules to your agent’s system prompt

If a formatting rule applies to every single conversation your agent has (not just reports), put it in the system prompt instead of a skill.

1. Open your agent’s settings.

2. Find the Custom Instructions (system prompt) field.

3. Add your formatting rules. For example:

When generating any report:
- Never add sections or columns I didn’t ask for.
- Always follow the format defined in the relevant skill.
- If no skill exists for this report type, ask me before choosing a layout.

The system prompt is loaded into every conversation automatically. Use it for broad behavioral rules; use skills for specific report-by-report formatting details.

How to Apply a Formatting Fix to All Similar Reports

If you fix formatting on one report (e.g., “Merchandising — UK”) and want it to apply to all merchandising reports across regions:

1. Make sure the formatting rules are in a shared skill (e.g., merchandising-report-format), not in a region-specific skill.

2. Tell your agent explicitly: “Update the ‘merchandising-report-format’ skill with these changes. This skill should be used for all merchandising reports regardless of region.”

3. In each report’s trigger prompt, reference the skill by name: “Generate the UK Merchandising Report. Follow the ‘merchandising-report-format’ skill exactly.”

By referencing the same skill name in every trigger prompt, all reports pull from the same formatting playbook. Change it once, and every report picks up the change on its next run.

How to Stop Your Agent From Making Unsolicited Changes

If your agent is adding sections, changing layouts, or “improvising” without being asked:

1. Add an explicit constraint to your skill or system prompt:

Follow the report format defined in the skill exactly. Do not add, remove, 
or reorder sections unless I explicitly ask you to. Do not suggest layout 
improvements during scheduled runs.

2. If your agent has the self-updating instructions toggle on, be aware that it can modify its own system prompt during a conversation. If you want to lock down behavior, consider turning this off in your agent’s settings.

3. If your agent has Skill Editing & Creation turned on, it can also modify skill files during conversations. If you want formatting rules to be immutable, turn this toggle off after finalizing your skills.

Quick Reference: Where to Put What

Validation

After creating or updating a skill:

• Visit your Skills page and confirm the skill exists with the correct content.

• Start a new conversation (not the same one) and ask the agent to generate the report. It should follow the skill’s formatting rules without any additional prompting.

• Run the same report for a different region or brand. The formatting should be identical.

Still Need Help?

If your formatting is still inconsistent after setting up a skill, reach out to support at support@gumloop.com.

Related Docs

• Agent Skills — Full guide to creating, managing, and attaching skills

• Agents — Agent configuration including system prompt and tools

• Self-Improving Instructions — How agents can update their own instructions

• Agent Triggers — Setting up scheduled and event-based triggers