Rovo Agent – Output Format Not Respected After Scenario to Subagent Migration

[May Rosales]

After the forced migration from scenario-based to subagent model, my Rovo agent is no longer respecting the output format defined in its instructions. Specifically, it is not returning results in the required 7-column table format.

EXPECTED BEHAVIOUR (working correctly before migration)
The agent returned a table with exactly 7 columns in this order:
1. JIRA Issue key
2. Summary of the issue
3. Relevance Percentage
4. reason why you think it is related issue
5. fix on the issue done
6. Root Cause
7. Status

ACTUAL BEHAVIOUR (after migration)
The agent is consistently returning a simplified table with only 4-5 columns, with renamed headers such as "JIRA Issue", "Summary", "Relevance", "Resolution", "Connection to [issue]". The columns Fix Applied, Root Cause, and Why Related are either dropped or merged into other columns.

Anyone having the same and recommendation how to way around it - Already consumed all possible instruction format recommendation to try fix the instruction however nothing work.

Our agent is being used across teams and now it no longer what we wanted to work.

[May Rosales]

I used the manual setup. My agent was originally built using the
scenario-based model and it currently deploy in production, and our teams are already using it and was working perfectly with the exact 7 column output format I specified in the instructions.

Now I need to do some updates to our agent, so I duplicate the production agent and notice that scenario base is become sub-agent, and the output is now incorrect, I have tried rebuilding the instructions from scratch manually multiple times with no success. Interestingly the format rules work better when placed in the TRIGGER field rather than the INSTRUCTIONS field, which suggests the new model processes these two fields differently, or gives the instructions field less weight when determining output format.

Did the agent builder guide handle output format instructions differently? Would love to know if there is a recommended way to enforce strict table formatting in the new subagent model.

[Rebekka Heilmann _viadee_]

Hi @May Rosales - welcome to the Community.

Very interesting (and frustrating). 

The switch to Sub Agents should not have done anything to the logic behind it. It was more of a name change than anything else. The only other thing that was changed is that the Agent itself doesn't have a behaviour anymore, but instructions and it's sort of the default now.

I've flagged your question for the Atlassian Team.

[Nikola Perisic]

Hello @May Rosales 

When you were creating your agent, did you tell the agent what to emphasize and what to avoid?

[May Rosales]

Hello @Nikola Perisic 

Yes I have been very explicit in my instructions about the
output format. I have specified the exact 7 column names the agent
must return:

1. JIRA Issue key
2. Summary of the issue
3. Relevance Percentage
4. reason why you think it is related issue
5. fix on the issue done
6. Root Cause
7. Status

I have tried the following approaches with no success:
- Adding MANDATORY and CRITICAL rules at the top of instructions
- Adding a self-check directive ("ask yourself before responding")
- Using numbered column lists instead of markdown tables
- Adding a real example of correct output with actual data
- Using paragraph format to avoid rich text editor formatting issues

Interestingly when I challenged the agent mid-conversation by asking
"why are you not respecting the column format" it immediately
produced the correct 7-column table — proving the model understands
the format but is not applying it automatically from the instructions.

I also discovered just now that adding the format rules to the TRIGGER field
(instead of instructions) works better, the agent now returns all
7 columns.

This was all working correctly under the old scenario-based model
before the sub agent migration.

[Nikola Perisic]

When you were creating your agent, did you do the manual setup or you followed the agent builder guide that you have at the beginning?