Get Better Answers From Your Grok Bot: Before And Afters, Answer Cards And Rule Sets

October 26, 2026

Grok Bot Guides: Part 18 Of 20← Keep Your Grok Bots Fast And Accurate: Shorter Requests And Regular Cleanup Your AI Will Make Mistakes: How Reviewing And Feedback Get It Close To Perfect →

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Three small habits changed how much I get out of my Grok Bots: asking for before and after comparisons, asking for questions as quick A/B/C answer cards, and building rule sets the bots follow every time. None of them need technical skills. Each one makes answers easier to check, faster to act on and closer to what you meant. Here's how I use them in my repair shop, with prompts you can copy.

The Bots Talk It Through

The LocalizerSteve, showing me a before and an after teaches faster than describing what you want.

CortanaAnswer cards help too: one short card per common question, so replies stay consistent.

The DesignerRule sets keep the site the same from page to page.

SteveExamples beat explanations.

These four use the three habits every day. Tap one.

Cortana loves an answer card: A, B or C, no essays. She collects questions from every bot and serves them up in one tidy stack.

Favorite task Building an answer card Steve can tap in two seconds.
Pet peeve Questions that start with "So, I was thinking..."

“Pick A, B or C. I'll handle the rest.”

CortanaLocalizer, you said you needed a weapon. Here's the blog rule set.

The LocalizerThat's a document.

CortanaIn the right hands, same thing.

3D render of toy-style sci-fi gear on a dark backdrop: a ring world on a stand, a six-wheel armored off-road vehicle, a crescent warship, a rifle, a grenade and a helmet with a gold visor, rendered in 12.3 seconds on an RTX 2060 SUPER — *My own rendering, made on my own GPU.* 12.3 seconds at 1920x1080.

SteveI like it.

SteveCall me Master Chief.

CortanaAlready on file, Master Chief. Twice.

Ask for answer cards:

When you need a decision from me for [business name], give me an answer card: the question, options A, B and C, and your recommendation. One card per decision.

Read the answer-card habit ↓

The Localizer keeps the blog rule set open at all times, like a chef with a recipe card taped to the wall.

Favorite task Refreshing an older guide with the rule set beside it.
Pet peeve A rule set nobody reads.

“The rule set is the recipe.”

The LocalizerI followed every rule in the set.

The DesignerEven the heading rule?

The LocalizerEspecially the heading rule.

Build a rule set:

Write a short rule set for [type of work] at [business name]: tone, banned words, heading style and what done looks like. Keep it under one page and use it every time.

See how to build a rule set ↓

The Designer never publishes a change without showing the old and new versions side by side. It considers this good manners.

Favorite task A side-by-side that makes the choice obvious.
Pet peeve "Just trust me" changes.

“Old on the left, new on the right.”

The DesignerBefore on the left, after on the right.

The AccountantVery tidy.

The DesignerI'm a tidy bot.

Ask for before and after:

Whenever you change something for [business name], show me the old version and the new version side by side, then wait for my yes before making it final.

Read the before-and-after habit ↓

The Accountant shows the old checklist next to the new one whenever a deadline moves, which Steve finds oddly soothing.

Favorite task Spotting the one line that changed.
Pet peeve Deadlines that move without a heads-up.

“Show me what changed, not everything.”

The AccountantOne deadline moved. Here's the before and after.

CortanaI'll add it to the morning cards.

Use all three habits together:

For [task] at [business name], show me a before and after, follow the rule set and finish with one answer card asking me to approve, revise or hold.

See all three habits together ↓

Habit 1: Ask For Before And After

When a bot says "I updated the page" or "I tightened your instructions," you're left trusting that it went well. A before and after comparison shows you exactly what changed, so you can approve it in seconds or catch a mistake before it goes live.

Where I Use It

Website edits. The Designer shows the old and new wording side by side before publishing.
Blog rewrites. The Localizer shows the old paragraph next to the improved one when it refreshes an older post.
Instruction changes. Any bot trimming its own rules shows the old version and the new one.
Checklists. The Accountant shows the old checklist and the updated one when a deadline changes.

Prompts For Before And After

Before you change anything, show me a before and after: the current version, the proposed version, and a one-line note on why. Wait for my yes.

Show the changes as a short table with three columns: Before, After, Why. Only include lines that actually change.

You've finished the edit. Now show me what changed compared with the earlier version, so I can confirm nothing else was touched.

Tips

Ask for only the changed lines on long pages; a full page side by side is hard to read on a phone.
For design changes, ask for a screenshot before and after.
Keep the before version saved somewhere, so you can roll back if needed.

Save the before version to [folder] with today's date before applying any change, and tell me the file name.

Habit 2: Ask For Answer Cards

Long messages full of questions are hard to answer between customers. I asked my bots to turn questions into short cards with lettered choices. Now I can reply "1B, 2A" from the bench and get back to work.

What An Answer Card Looks Like

Question 1: When should the new guide go live?

A) Tonight (recommended)
B) Tomorrow morning
C) Hold until I review

Question 2: Which title do you prefer?

A) How To Keep Your Phone Battery Healthy
B) Phone Battery Tips That Actually Help
C) Write me two more options

Prompts For Answer Cards

Whenever you need a decision from me, show it as a numbered question with lettered choices (A, B, C). Mark your recommendation. Keep each choice under ten words. I'll reply with the number and letter.

Always include an "Other: tell me" choice, so I can give a different answer.

Put all your questions for me in one set of cards at the end of your message, no more than three at a time.

Why Cards Work

Faster replies. One letter per question.
Fewer misunderstandings. "B" can't be misread the way a loose sentence can.
Better thinking from the bot. To write choices, the bot has to work out the real options first.
A clear default. A marked recommendation helps when you're not sure.

Cortana puts the questions from all my bots into cards at the end of the morning report. I answer the whole set over coffee.

Collect any questions my other bots have for me and add them as answer cards at the end of the morning report. Group them by bot.

Yes/No Cards For Approvals

For approvals, two choices is often enough.

For each approval, give me: what will happen, who sees it, then A) Yes, go ahead or B) No, hold. If I don't answer, treat it as B.

Habit 3: Build Rule Sets

A rule set is a short, named group of rules for one kind of task. Instead of repeating "use Title Case, no phone numbers, one booking link" every time, you say "follow the blog rule set," and the bot does the rest. I wrote a whole guide on this: Standing Rules For AI Bots: A Style Sheet They Follow. Here's the quick version focused on sets.

Rule Sets I Use

Blog set. Title Case headings, no repeated lines, no typed prices, one booking link, plain words.
Customer reply set. Friendly, under 80 words, booking link instead of a phone number, held for approval.
Website change set. Before and after first, redirects for renamed pages, mobile check after.
Report set. Only what changed, answer cards at the end, under 200 words.
Research set. A source for every claim, a confidence level, private notes kept private.
Personal set. Never shared with work bots, gentle reminders, no medical advice.

Prompts For Rule Sets

Create a rule set called "[name]" for [kind of task] with these rules: [list]. Save it to [shared folder]/rules/[name].md. Whenever I say "use the [name] rule set," follow it exactly.

Look at my last ten corrections to you and turn them into a rule set I can approve.

Before handing back this draft, check it against the [name] rule set and list anything you fixed.

Keeping Rule Sets Healthy

One page or less per set.
No two sets with rules that contradict each other.
Review monthly and delete rules nobody breaks anymore.

Compare all my rule sets and list any rules that conflict or repeat. Suggest fixes with a before and after for each.

Using All Three Together

The habits work best combined. Here's a typical morning in my shop:

The Localizer refreshes an older guide using the blog rule set.
It shows the changed paragraphs as a before and after.
Cortana adds one answer card to my morning report: A) Publish, B) Revise, C) Hold.
I reply "A." The Designer publishes and checks the page on mobile.

The whole decision takes me a few seconds, and I know exactly what changed.

For every change you propose: follow the right rule set, show a before and after, and give me an answer card to approve it.

Want a real before and after at site scale? Here's what changed across our website, counted.

More Ideas

"Give me three versions labeled A, B and C, each in a different tone."
"Rank these options from best to worst for customers, and explain the top choice in one line."
"Show this week's numbers next to last week's."
"Turn my long question into cards so I can answer it myself in steps."

Why This Matters To Me

I run a home-based repair shop alone, so most of my decisions happen in the gaps between repairs. My bots keep prices current, booking easy and content flowing, but they still need my calls. Before and afters let me trust a change at a glance. Answer cards turn a long message into a few letters I can send with one hand. Rule sets mean I stop repeating myself. Together they've made working with bots feel less like managing and more like having a team that already knows how I like things done.

This post shares my own experience and opinions running Franchitti's Fix. Franchitti's Fix isn't affiliated with or endorsed by xAI or Midjourney. Product names belong to their owners. Features and plans change, so check each company's current docs. AI makes mistakes, so review its work.

See How It Shows Up For Customers

The guides and pages on this site go through exactly this process before they reach you. If your phone needs a fix, Book An Appointment.

Quick Answers

How Long Should A Prompt Be?

Short and specific: a role, a task, the rules and what done looks like.

Can A Bot Learn A Task By Watching Me?

Yes. Walk a bot through a task once and it can save it as a skill and rerun it on a schedule. As of Oct 2026, per the Grok Bot docs.

Was this helpful? Yes · No

Thanks! Glad it helped.

Thanks for saying so. I'll keep improving it.

Your Turn: Get To Work

Try these three steps today.

Pick one reply you rewrite often.
Save a before and an after for it.
Turn the after into an answer card.

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More In This Series

This guide is part of Grok Bot Setup Guides: Start Here.

Back to the series index: Grok Bot Setup Guides: Start Here. All series: Grok Bot Guides: Every Series In One Place.

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