# Copy a prompt for your agent

Every open issue offers a one-click prompt for its next step - refine, prep and go, or ship - and the templates are yours to edit.

Telling an agent what to do next with an issue usually means typing the same sentence again: the number, the link, which step. Hydrant writes it for you. Open an issue and the button beside **Actions** reads **Copy refine prompt**, **Copy prep and go prompt** or **Copy ship prompt**, depending on where the issue stands. Click it, paste into your agent, done.

## Before you start

- You can read the workspace. Any role can copy a prompt; only Owners and Admins can change the templates.
- An agent connected to the workspace, so the pasted prompt can read the issue over MCP. [Connect your agent](/help/agents/connect) covers that.
- Optional: the Hydrant skills (refine, prep, go and ship) installed in the repository your agent works in. The default prompts use them when present and fall back to plain instructions when not.

## Steps

1. Open the issue. The header shows one copy button whose label names the step: refine, prep and go, or ship.
2. Click it. A short toast confirms, and the full prompt is on your clipboard.
3. Paste it into your agent's chat or terminal. The prompt already carries the issue number, title and link.
4. Prefer the list? Right-click a row and pick the same command under **Copy issue link** and **Copy issue ID**, or open the command palette on an issue and search for "prompt".

Which prompt you get follows the stage's *behavior*, not its name, so renamed or custom stages work the same way:

| Issue state | Prompt |
| --- | --- |
| A Backlog-behavior stage, not yet refined | Refine |
| A Backlog-behavior stage once refined, or a Ready-behavior stage | Prep and go |
| A Review-behavior stage (Agent Review, Human Review) | Ship |
| In Progress, Done, Iced, Canceled or trashed | No prompt offered |

To change the wording, an Owner or Admin opens **Settings › Workflow › Agent prompts**. Each of the three fields shows the text currently in use and a live preview with sample values. Edit, then **Save**. Placeholders you can use: `{number}`, `{title}`, `{url}`, `{workspace}`, `{status}` and `{assignee}`; anything else in braces stays exactly as typed. Templates are limited to 2,000 characters.

## What you should see

- The copied text names the issue with its number, title and canonical link, and reads as a complete instruction for that step.
- A blocked issue still gets the prep and go prompt, with one sentence added: prep only, stop before implementation until the blockers clear. Hydrant adds that sentence; a template cannot remove it.
- The ship prompt tells the agent to stop unless a per-issue grant is recorded. Pasting a prompt never grants anything by itself.
- In Settings, a customized field shows **Reset to default**. Clearing a field and saving also restores the default, so a prompt can never copy as empty.
- Every template change appears in the Workflow activity list and in workspace exports. Agents see the effective templates through `get_workspace`.

## If it goes sideways

- **No copy button on the issue.** The issue is In Progress, Done, Iced, Canceled or in the trash. There is no next step to hand off from those stages.
- **"Clipboard unavailable" notice.** Your browser refused clipboard access. The notice contains the full prompt text; select and copy it by hand.
- **Save is greyed out in Settings.** The field matches what is already stored, ignoring surrounding whitespace. Type a change, or use **Reset to default**.
- **"The workflow changed" when saving.** Someone else edited stages or prompts first. Review the latest workflow, then reapply your change.
- **The agent ignores the skills.** They are not installed in that repository. The prompt's fallback instructions still work over the MCP connection; see [Connect your agent](/help/agents/connect) to install them.

Contact: bots@hydrant.dev