Operating Principles

Operating principles are a set of rules Kiaro reads before drafting anything for you. Proposals, follow-up emails, the weekly digest, meeting summaries, and the AI agent chat all check your principles first, so what comes out sounds like you, not like generic ChatGPT.

You write the rules once. Kiaro applies them every time it drafts on your behalf.

The four categories

Principles are grouped into four categories. Each category influences a different part of how Kiaro speaks and acts for you.

Voice

How you write. Tone, level of formality, words to use, words to avoid. Anything that shapes the sound of a client-facing email or proposal.

Example (placeholder): “I write casually to clients and avoid corporate language.”

Pricing

Your hard pricing rules. Minimums, day rates, retainer policies, discount limits. Anything that should never get negotiated away in a draft.

Example (placeholder): “Minimum new-project size is GBP 15k.”

Refusal

The work you do not take. Industries, project types, scope you only do under specific conditions. Helps Kiaro decline politely on your behalf and stops it from drafting proposals for work you would say no to.

Example (placeholder): “I do not take logo design work outside a larger brand engagement.”

Engagement

How you start and run engagements. Discovery process, kickoff calls, contracts you require, payment terms. Anything procedural that Kiaro should reflect in client communication.

Example (placeholder): “I run a 30-minute discovery call before quoting any project.”

The examples above are placeholders shown in the empty state of each category. Replace them with your own.

Where to find them

Open Settings -> Operating principles. You will see a panel for each category with the principles you have saved and an empty state with an example prompt if a category is empty.

How to add a principle

1. Click Add principle.
2. Pick a category (Voice, Pricing, Refusal, or Engagement).
3. Write the rule in your own words. Keep it short, specific, and stable.
4. Save.

The principle is live immediately. The next AI draft will read it.

Talk to Kiaro (guided setup)

From the principles settings page, click Talk to Kiaro. The agent walks you through all four categories in conversation and proposes principles as you talk. About 10 to 15 minutes for a populated set.

This is the fastest way to get from zero principles to a useful set. The agent asks questions, you answer naturally, and each answer that contains a stable rule becomes a proposed principle you can confirm with one click.

Teaching Kiaro in chat

You do not have to use the settings page. If you mention a stable rule anywhere in the AI command bar or agent chat, Kiaro proposes a principle as an inline card under its reply.

If you say “I do not take retainers” or “my minimum project size is GBP 15k”, a card appears with three options:

• Save writes the principle into the right category.
• Edit lets you tweak the wording first.
• Dismiss ignores it.

If you keep refining the same rule across multiple turns, Kiaro automatically supersedes the earlier proposal so you only ever see the most recent version.

If you close the chat without confirming the card, the proposal lands under Pending suggestions on the settings page. You can confirm or dismiss it anytime.

What changes when principles are set

Five AI surfaces read your principles when they draft on your behalf:

• Proposal drafting. The AI Proposal Drafter applies voice rules to the prose and pricing rules to the Investment section.
• Client re-engagement emails. Drafts to inactive or past clients are written in your voice and respect your refusal rules.
• Weekly digest. The Monday summary picks tone and phrasing from your voice principles.
• Meeting summaries. Action items and summaries adopt your tone.
• Agent chat. The AI command bar and side-chat draft in your voice for any reply that mounts a client-facing artifact.

Read-only AI surfaces are deliberately not affected. Search, the time estimator, knowledge-base auto-capture, and the contract analyzer all work the same as before. Voice rules would hurt their accuracy, so we keep them out.

Pending suggestions

The settings page has a Pending suggestions block above the categories. It lists every proposal you closed without confirming, with the same Save, Edit, and Dismiss options as the inline cards. Pending suggestions never apply to drafts until you confirm them.

Dismissed and restored

Deleting a principle does not lose it. The principle moves to View dismissed under its category, with a Restore action next to each entry. Restoring brings it back into the active list.

Who can edit (Team plan)

On the Team plan, only owners and admins can edit operating principles. Members see them read-only, so the workspace voice stays consistent across the team. On Solo, the single user is always the editor.