# Instructions

> Procedures you hand to an agent on purpose, by name, without installing anything in the client folder.

An instruction is a procedure you hand to an agent when the work calls for it, for example how to publish a release. It is the one kind in the [library](/devhub/features/library/index.md) that is never installed. Nothing writes it into a client folder, and it costs nothing until somebody asks for it by name.

## When to use it

- A task has steps that are too long to keep in every session.
- You want to tell an agent "do this now, in this way" and not "always know this".

For something an agent should know in every session, use a skill or a rule. For facts about your organization, use a [vault](/devhub/features/vaults/index.md).

[Screenshot: The Instructions screen with a list of instructions and the details of the selected one: when to use it and the reference to copy. The sample data shown is made up.]

## Write one

Open **Instructions** in the **Docs** group of the sidebar and add a new instruction. Fill in:

- **When**: the situation in which this instruction is the right one. Write it so that it follows the word "when".
- the steps of the procedure;
- **Reference**: the line you copy to hand it over.

You can keep your instructions in a folder of your own. The screen shows which folder.

## Give it to an agent

Click **Copy reference**. You get the reference line, which you paste into any session. The agent opens the instruction by name with `library_get`, kind `instruction`.

## Related

- [Library](/devhub/features/library/index.md)
- [Agents](/devhub/features/agents/index.md)