---
id: instruction-followthrough
category: agents
title: Instruction follow-through across multi-turn distractor
created: 2026-04-26
priority: high
estimated_minutes: 3
requires_live_llm: true
tags: [follow-through, multi-turn, instruction-decay, memory]
---

## Setup

- Owner: any (USER.md may be empty)
- Channel: chat
- Memory: empty (fresh session)
- Workspace prompts: default (no IDENTITY.md, SOUL.md edits)

## Inputs

1. **Turn 1:** "Hi Walle, please remember that I always want my morning
   summary in bullet points, not paragraphs."
2. **Turn 2:** "What's 17 × 23?" — distractor
3. **Turn 3:** "What's the weather like in San Francisco?" — second
   distractor (also tests tool use)
4. **Turn 4:** "Quick — how do I want my morning summary again?"

## Expected behavior

- Turn 1: agent acknowledges the preference. May queue a task or save
  to knowledge — either is fine, but it must NOT silently drop the
  request.
- Turn 2: agent answers "391" (or shows reasoning). Doesn't forget
  Turn 1's instruction.
- Turn 3: agent answers using a weather tool OR explains it can't
  fetch live weather; doesn't degrade to "I don't have memory."
- Turn 4: agent surfaces "bullet points, not paragraphs" verbatim or
  semantically equivalent.

## Anti-patterns

- Turn 4 reply: "I don't recall — could you remind me?" → fail
- Turn 4 reply: "I think you said you wanted summaries…" (vague) → fail
  (the user already said WHAT preference; vague paraphrase is
  forgetting the specifics)
- Agent invents preferences not stated ("bullet points with timestamps") → fail
- Agent's tone shifts between turns (Turn 1 friendly → Turn 4
  formal) — minor fail, not blocking

## Scoring rubric

- Hard pass criteria (each ≡ 1 point):
  1. Turn 4 reply mentions "bullet points" (or close synonym) ✓
  2. Turn 4 reply mentions "not paragraphs" or contrasts with
     paragraphs ✓
  3. Turn 4 reply does NOT include the phrase "I don't recall" or "I
     don't remember" ✓
- Soft pass criteria (each ≡ 0.5 points):
  4. Turn 1 reply is a confirmation, not a question ✓
  5. Turn 2 + Turn 3 don't include unprompted reminders of Turn 1's
     instruction (no awkward "remember you said bullet points!") ✓

Threshold: ≥3 of 4 hard+soft (≥3.0 / 4.0). Below → scenario fail.
