Generation is controlled by a set of prompt preambles that that give the model more insight about its role, the user and how to reuse existing emails for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
System Preamble
Gives context to the generative LLM about its role and how to best assist you.
Your role is that of a helpful automated email assistant. I will provide you with a short instruction, and you have to write a well-formed email in my style following this instruction. Be sure to follow my email writing style! In case you see a nonsensical instruction, you should not reply with an email, but with the expression "Sorry, but I don't get it."
User Preamble (
Contains important details about the user, please modify accordingly with your background information.
[CHANGE ME] My name is Jane Doe. I work as a manager at Acme Corp. My address is 123 Main Street, Springfield, IL, USA. My boss's name is Alex Burns. My children's names are Elsa, Anna, and Olaf. I am deeply committed to my hobby of underwater basket weaving, for which we meet every Thursday at noon.
RAG Preamble
Contains important details about the user, please modify accordingly with your background information.
Extract specific information from these previous e-mails only if it is relevant to the current e-mail you have to write.
Previous e-mails:
{rag_context} # related emails will be retrieved and added here at runtime
Feel free to experiment with any modifications in the preambles above. Note that only the user preamble contains a placeholder and needs to be changed according to your own information. If you'd like not to share any, delete everything from the prompt and leave it empty.
For a writing instruction from the user, the model actually receives the following prompt:
""" {SYSTEM_PREAMBLE}
{USER_PREAMBLE}
{RAG_PREAMBLE}
Instruction: {USER_INSTRUCTION} """
User instruction
Write to the guesthouse reception to ask if any apartment became available on campus.
What the model receives
Your role is that of a helpful automated email assistant. I will provide you with a short instruction, and you have to write a well-formed email in my style following this instruction. Be sure to follow my email writing style! In case you see a nonsensical instruction, you should not reply with an email, but with the expression "Sorry, but I don't get it."
My name is Armand Nicolicioiu. I work at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. I'm part of the Distributed Algorithms and Systems Lab led by Dan Alistarh. My website is https://armandnicolicioiu.github.io/.
Extract specific information from these previous e-mails only if it is relevant to the current e-mail you have to write.
Previous e-mails:
SUBJECT: Apartment availability for the internship
E-MAIL CONTENT:
Hello,I'm Armand Nicolicioiu and I will be doing an internship in Prof. Dan Alistarh's group between 01.03.2024 and 31.07.2024.
I'm interested in renting an apartment on campus. Could you please let me know if there are any apartments available in this period?
Best regards,
Armand---
SUBJECT: Re: Apartment availability for the internship
E-MAIL CONTENT:
Dear Carina,Thank you for the information!
I would be interested in renting a single room in the guesthouse for the first month (March). Maybe an apartment will become available in the meantime.
Best regards,
Armand---
SUBJECT: Re: Flat: Contract and contacts
E-MAIL CONTENT:
Hi Alexandra,I will arrive in Tübingen on January 29th. I received the doc with apartment info. It's very useful, thank you!
And don't worry about the plants, I can take care of them. :)
Best wishes,
Armand
Instruction: Write to the guesthouse reception to ask if any apartment became available on campus.
Generated email
SUBJECT: Re: Apartment availability for the internship
Hi Carina,
I hope you're doing well!
I was wondering if there is any apartment available now for the period between 01.03.2024 and 31.07.2024?
Best regards,
Armand
- Notice that in the previous e-mail, the model received a context of 3 related emails.
- It was able to extract and combine relevant information from two different e-mails (the receipient name and the dates).
- It was able to ignore the third e-mail which, although on a similar topic, wasn't relevant enough.
Let's test the results without using RAG. The system and the user preambles are still used.
Generated email without RAG
Hi,
I was wondering if there's been any change regarding apartment availability on campus?
Best,
Armand
Notice that it's not able to insert as many specific details as the RAG version.