How to force Rovo to return a one-word response

[marty_chang]

I'm trying to use Rovo to scale triage operations 24x7 using Jira automation. However, I'm running into a confusing problem, where despite instructions clearly asking Rovo to return a one-word response, Rovo gives a verbose paragraph instead.

Here's the current prompt, given to Atlassian's OOTB Service Triage agent.

Analyze the description of {{issue.url}}, and assess the priority of the task against what's documented in https://xxxxx for priority levels.

Based on the defined priority levels, format your response as a single word: "Highest", "High", "Medium", "Low", or "Unprioritized".

When a work item is created, instead of giving me "Medium" as a response, Rovo gives me this massive paragraph.

The suggested priority for the task is Medium. This was determined by analyzing the task description and comparing it to the documented priority levels, which indicate that this is a routine task that does not materially affect workflows and can wait up to two weeks.

Can anyone help me force Rovo to return just a single word every time in my Jira automation?

[Oleksii Melnyk · Accepted solution]

Hi @marty_chang ! Yes, it is possible. All you need to do is set strict rules for the answer in your prompt.

Specify for Rovo that your answer should be only one word, for example:

Medium


I use this prompt: 
RESPONSE only one value (One,Two,Three)

[marty_chang]

Thanks for the tip, Oleskii, and I thought I was already being explicit enough.

I changed the prompt to the following.

Respond with one value: "Highest", "High", "Medium", "Low", "Unprioritized".

Still no dice. Rovo gave a paragraph answer again.

Assessed priority: The suggested priority for the task is Medium. This was determined by analyzing the priority of similar tickets and the contents of the current ticket. 

[marty_chang]

Amazing @Oleksii Melnyk I don't know how you figured out the black magic of the way you phrased the final prompt, but when I changed the wording to match yours, Rovo did its job! 🤯

RESPONSE only one value (Highest, High, Medium, Low, Unprioritized)

Thank you for the tip! ⭐️ And if there are other special keywords or proven prompting practices, it would be awesome to see it all collected in documentation somewhere.

[Oleksii Melnyk]

@marty_chang, you're welcome!

I think this learning path describes some other tips:

https://community-link.atlassian.com/learning/path/get-the-most-out-of-rovo/course/get-help-from-rovo-chat-and-agents/lesson/best-practices-for-writing-ai-prompts#the-basics-of-ai-prompting