Prompt writing with Archie

In this article, learn how to use Archie to recall and summarise facts and information from Matter Details and documents.

First time hearing about Archie? Learn more in Getting Started with Archie, the Smokeball AI Assistant.

What can I ask Archie about?

Currently, you can ask Archie about the following data within a matter to generate contextual responses:

• Core matter data - specifically Matter Details/Info, Client Details and Other Side's details
• Additional matter data - specifically Tasks and Events
• Billing matter data - specifically Invoices and Trust Accounts
  • Invoice and trust information will not be accessible to staff who do not have billing and trust permissions. 
• Files and documents - view compatible file types and sizes

How do I write a good prompt for Archie?

When working with Archie, remember that Archie references all the data and documents stored within a specific Smokeball matter, so writing a concise, specific prompt is essential. The more direct you are, the better Archie can assist you.

We recommend following this structure to ensure your prompt is clear and reliable:

 Persona → Task → Context → Format 

Persona (Who should Archie act as?)

Set Archie's role and voice while providing expectations on the level of legal expertise and reasoning.

Examples

• “You are a senior litigation lawyer.”
• “You are a contracts specialist.”
• “You are a family law solicitor.”
• “You are a paralegal preparing a briefing note.”

Task (What do you want Archie to do?)

Use a clear verb at the beginning of the sentence to define the exact job that Archie should perform.

Examples: Draft, Summarise, Analyse, Compare, Review, Rewrite, Extract

• "Summarise the matter."

Context (What information should Archie rely on?)

Setting clear context will guide Archie's reasoning and prevents incorrect assumptions. To do this, tell Archie what is relevant and what should be ignored.

Examples: 

• “Use the uploaded documents and matter history.”
• “Focus on issues relevant to liability and damages.”
• “The client is waiting for the court to allocate a hearing date.”
• “Apply NSW law.”

Format (How should the final output be structured?)

Explain how exactly you would like the final result to look. This reduces the need to go back and manually edit the result.

Examples:

• “Use headings: Background, Key Facts, Issues, Risks, Next Steps.”
• “Provide (1) Improved clause (2) Summary of changes (3) Risks.”
• “Greeting → update → next steps → what we need.”

Example prompts using the Persona → Task → Context → Format structure

Prompt cheatsheets

If you practise Conveyancing, Family Law or Personal Injury, we have put together some prompts for you to get started with on a downloadable PDF. Access them below:

• Conveyancing Prompts
• Family Law Prompts
• Personal Injury Prompts

Getting Archie's help

If you're stuck, try asking Archie to recommend you prompts, e.g. "I am a family lawyer based in Victoria. Tell me some specific and detailed prompts I can use to assist me with this divorce matter". 

You can then use these prompts to ask questions about specific documents in the matter, or to help with drafting correspondence.

Learning more about AI and prompt writing

Take our Smokeball AI Certification on the Smokeball Academy to learn best practices when writing prompts and more. Completing this course also contributes 1 CPD point towards the Professional Skills category.

Advanced tips for creating your prompts

The tips below can come in handy, especially when creating reusable prompts for your Archie Prompt Library.

Creating a Prompt Input form to collect prerequisite information

There are many cases where matter information isn't explicitly stored in the matter, which means Archie will make assumptions about the situation when running the prompt. You can prevent this by giving Archie context with a Prompt Input form that collects the finer details before running the prompt. 

Learn more about Prompt Input forms.

Guiding Archie with instructions

You can use the < and > symbols to tell Archie how to handle specific cases, for example, "<only include if client has an email>". 

Archie can pick up on these instructions and follow the conditional logic when executing your prompt, preventing it from making assumptions and helps it to produce cleaner, more accurate drafts.

Anything placed inside < > tells Archie:

• when something should appear,
• when something should be removed, or
• how something should change, depending on the information Archie has at drafting time.

Think of the symbols as “Only do this if it applies.”

Learn more about writing instructions for Archie.

Adding placeholders for dynamic details

Use [and ] to mark where information should be filled in by Archie - for example, [client last name]. It keeps your sample output flexible and reusable across different matters.

Learn more about using placeholders.