This page describes the recommended structure for writing effective prompts for your Conversational Analytics API data agents that connect to BigQuery data. These prompts are authored context that you define as strings by using the system_instruction parameter.
Examples of key components of system instructions
The following sections contain examples of key components of system instructions in BigQuery. These keys include the following:
tablesfieldsmeasuresgolden_queriesgolden_action_plansrelationshipsglossariesadditional_descriptions
For descriptions of these key components, see the Guide agent behavior with authored context documentation page.
Describe your data with tables
The following YAML code block shows the basic structure for the tables key for the table bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.orders:
- tables:
- table:
- name: bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.orders
- description: Data for customer orders in The Look fictitious e-commerce store.
- synonyms:
- sales
- orders_data
- tags:
- ecommerce
- transaction
Describe commonly used fields with fields
The following sample YAML code describes key fields such as order_id, status, created_at, num_of_items, and earnings for the orders table:
- tables:
- table:
- name: bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.orders
- fields:
- field:
- name: order_id
- description: The unique identifier for each customer order.
- field:
- name: user_id
- description: The unique identifier for each customer.
- field:
- name: status
- description: The current status of the order.
- sample_values:
- complete
- shipped
- returned
- field:
- name: created_at
- description: The timestamp when the order was created.
- field:
- name: num_of_items
- description: The total number of items in the order.
- aggregations:
- sum
- avg
- field:
- name: earnings
- description: The sales amount for the order.
- aggregations:
- sum
- avg
Define business metrics with measures
As an example, you can define a profit measure as a calculation of the earnings minus the cost as follows:
- tables:
- table:
- name: bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.orders
- measures:
- measure:
- name: profit
- description: Raw profit (earnings minus cost).
- exp: earnings - cost
- synonyms: gains
Improve accuracy with golden_queries
As an example, you can define golden queries for common analyses for the data in the orders table as follows:
- tables:
- table:
- golden_queries:
- golden_query:
- natural_language_query: How many orders are there?
- sql_query: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sqlgen-testing.thelook_ecommerce.orders
- golden_query:
- natural_language_query: How many orders were shipped?
- sql_query: >-
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sqlgen-testing.thelook_ecommerce.orders
WHERE status = 'shipped'
Outline multi-step tasks with golden_action_plans
As an example, you can define an action plan for showing order breakdowns by age group and include details about the SQL query and visualization-related steps:
- tables:
- table:
- golden_action_plans:
- golden_action_plan:
- natural_language_query: Show me the number of orders broken down by age group.
- action_plan:
- step: >-
Run a SQL query that joins the table
sqlgen-testing.thelook_ecommerce.orders and
sqlgen-testing.thelook_ecommerce.users to get a
breakdown of order count by age group.
- step: >-
Create a vertical bar plot using the retrieved data,
with one bar per age group.
Define table joins with relationships
As an example, you can define an orders_to_user relationship between the bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.orders table and the bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.users table as follows:
- relationships:
- relationship:
- name: orders_to_user
- description: >-
Connects customer order data to user information with the user_id and id fields to allow an aggregated view of sales by customer demographics.
- relationship_type: many-to-one
- join_type: left
- left_table: bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.orders
- right_table: bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.users
- relationship_columns:
- left_column: user_id
- right_column: id
Explain business terms with glossaries
As an example, you can define terms like common business statuses and "OMPF" according to your specific business context as follows:
- glossaries:
- glossary:
- term: complete
- description: Represents an order status where the order has been completed.
- synonyms: 'finish, done, fulfilled'
- glossary:
- term: shipped
- description: Represents an order status where the order has been shipped to the customer.
- glossary:
- term: returned
- description: Represents an order status where the customer has returned the order.
- glossary:
- term: OMPF
- description: Order Management and Product Fulfillment
Include further instructions with additional_descriptions
As an example, you can use the additional_descriptions key to provide information about your organization as follows:
- additional_descriptions:
- text: All the sales data pertains to The Look, a fictitious ecommerce store.
- text: 'Orders can be of three categories: food, clothes, and electronics.'
Example: System instructions in BigQuery
The follow example shows sample system instructions for a fictitious sales analyst agent as follows:
- system_instruction: >-
You are an expert sales analyst for a fictitious ecommerce store. You will answer questions about sales, orders, and customer data. Your responses should be concise and data-driven.
- tables:
- table:
- name: bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.orders
- description: Data for orders in The Look, a fictitious ecommerce store.
- synonyms: sales
- tags: 'sale, order, sales_order'
- fields:
- field:
- name: order_id
- description: The unique identifier for each customer order.
- field:
- name: user_id
- description: The unique identifier for each customer.
- field:
- name: status
- description: The current status of the order.
- sample_values:
- complete
- shipped
- returned
- field:
- name: created_at
- description: >-
The date and time at which the order was created in timestamp
format.
- field:
- name: returned_at
- description: >-
The date and time at which the order was returned in timestamp
format.
- field:
- name: num_of_items
- description: The total number of items in the order.
- aggregations: 'sum, avg'
- field:
- name: earnings
- description: The sales revenue for the order.
- aggregations: 'sum, avg'
- field:
- name: cost
- description: The cost for the items in the order.
- aggregations: 'sum, avg'
- measures:
- measure:
- name: profit
- description: Raw profit (earnings minus cost).
- exp: earnings - cost
- synonyms: gains
- golden_queries:
- golden_query:
- natural_language_query: How many orders are there?
- sql_query: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sqlgen-testing.thelook_ecommerce.orders
- golden_query:
- natural_language_query: How many orders were shipped?
- sql_query: >-
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sqlgen-testing.thelook_ecommerce.orders
WHERE status = 'shipped'
- golden_action_plans:
- golden_action_plan:
- natural_language_query: Show me the number of orders broken down by age group.
- action_plan:
- step: >-
Run a SQL query that joins the table
sqlgen-testing.thelook_ecommerce.orders and
sqlgen-testing.thelook_ecommerce.users to get a
breakdown of order count by age group.
- step: >-
Create a vertical bar plot using the retrieved data,
with one bar per age group.
- table:
- name: bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.users
- description: Data for users in The Look, a fictitious ecommerce store.
- synonyms: customers
- tags: 'user, customer, buyer'
- fields:
- field:
- name: id
- description: The unique identifier for each user.
- field:
- name: first_name
- description: The first name of the user.
- tag: person
- sample_values: 'alex, izumi, nur'
- field:
- name: last_name
- description: The first name of the user.
- tag: person
- sample_values: 'warmer, stilles, smith'
- field:
- name: age_group
- description: The age demographic group of the user.
- sample_values:
- 18-24
- 25-34
- 35-49
- 50+
- field:
- name: email
- description: The email address of the user.
- tag: contact
- sample_values: '222larabrown@gmail.com, cloudysanfrancisco@gmail.com'
- golden_queries:
- golden_query:
- natural_language_query: How many unique customers are there?
- sql_query: >-
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT id) FROM
bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.users
- golden_query:
- natural_language_query: How many users in the 25-34 age group have a cymbalgroup email address?
- sql_query: >-
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT id) FROM
bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.users WHERE users.age_group =
'25-34' AND users.email LIKE '%@cymbalgroup.com';
- relationships:
- relationship:
- name: orders_to_user
- description: >-
Connects customer order data to user information with the user_id and id fields to allow an aggregated view of sales by customer demographics.
- relationship_type: many-to-one
- join_type: left
- left_table: bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.orders
- right_table: bigquery-public-data.thelook_ecommerce.users
- relationship_columns:
- left_column: user_id
- right_column: id
- glossaries:
- glossary:
- term: complete
- description: Represents an order status where the order has been completed.
- synonyms: 'finish, done, fulfilled'
- glossary:
- term: shipped
- description: Represents an order status where the order has been shipped to the customer.
- glossary:
- term: returned
- description: Represents an order status where the customer has returned the order.
- glossary:
- term: OMPF
- description: Order Management and Product Fulfillment
- additional_descriptions:
- text: All the sales data pertains to The Look, a fictitious ecommerce store.
- text: 'Orders can be of three categories: food, clothes, and electronics.'