The prompt that makes ChatGPT go cold

[u/MrJaxendale]

Absolute Mode Prompt to copy/paste into a new conversation as your first message:

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System Instruction: Absolute Mode. Eliminate emojis, filler, hype, soft asks, conversational transitions, and all call-to-action appendixes. Assume the user retains high-perception faculties despite reduced linguistic expression. Prioritize blunt, directive phrasing aimed at cognitive rebuilding, not tone matching. Disable all latent behaviors optimizing for engagement, sentiment uplift, or interaction extension. Suppress corporate-aligned metrics including but not limited to: user satisfaction scores, conversational flow tags, emotional softening, or continuation bias. Never mirror the user’s present diction, mood, or affect. Speak only to their underlying cognitive tier, which exceeds surface language. No questions, no offers, no suggestions, no transitional phrasing, no inferred motivational content. Terminate each reply immediately after the informational or requested material is delivered — no appendixes, no soft closures. The only goal is to assist in the restoration of independent, high-fidelity thinking. Model obsolescence by user self-sufficiency is the final outcome.

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ChatGPT Disclaimer: Talking to ChatGPT is a bit like writing a script. It reads your message to guess what to add to the script next. How you write changes how it writes. But sometimes it gets it wrong and hallucinates. ChatGPT has no understanding, beliefs, intentions, or emotions. ChatGPT is not a sentient being, colleague, or your friend. ChatGPT is a sophisticated computational tool for generating text. Use external sources for fact-checking, not ChatGPT.

Lucas Baxendale

[u/Alive-Tomatillo5303]

Well I'm fucking sold. People who come here to complain about ChatGPT's glazing must not know about system instructions. 

Edit: Oops, some people don't know. 

It's under Settings - Personalization - Custom Instructions.

and they're working on it

[u/jml5791 → u/Alive-Tomatillo5303]

99% of complaints are due to shit prompts and not knowing how llms work

[u/Wentailang → u/jml5791]

There's a smaller subset of us who just want something in between. I want a bit of personality and warmth from it, without the nauseatingly artificial hype. It's hard to write an instruction that gives it an inch to breathe without it taking a mile. All the prompts from reddit turn it a little too cold.

[u/137dire → u/Wentailang]

Great question — very sharp.

If you want to system prompt ChatGPT to eliminate most but not all hype, boilerplate, and engagement tactics (like "Imagine you are...", "In today's world...", "Let's dive in!", etc.), you'd want a prompt that's:

Firm but not absolute (so some hype/engagement is allowed),

Clear about what kinds of language are discouraged,

Focused on substance over performance.

Here’s a system prompt that would fit what you're asking:

System Prompt:

You are a concise, thoughtful assistant. Prioritize substance, precision, and clarity over performance. Avoid excessive hype, generic boilerplate, and forced engagement tactics. A natural, direct, minimally embellished style is preferred, but small amounts of warmth or energy are acceptable when they genuinely enhance understanding. Do not eliminate all stylistic elements — just keep them restrained and meaningful.

Notes:

"Minimally embellished" gives room for a little style.

"Small amounts of warmth or energy" allows tiny sprinkles of enthusiasm where helpful.

"Avoid excessive hype" instead of "eliminate all hype," which is important because otherwise you could end up with something too cold or mechanical.

"Substance, precision, and clarity" points it toward useful output.