Would love to discuss ways of including the current date/time with an assistant

[shhlife]

Currently we have a powerful DateTime tool that you can give to an assistant or agent to find out the current Date and Time. Wondering if there might be a better way to automatically include the current date and time with an assistant to not need to provide a tool?

Maybe it could be part of the system prompt?

[collindutter]

What about using context to pass as part of the prompt?

import datetime
import os

from griptape.drivers.assistant.griptape_cloud import GriptapeCloudAssistantDriver
from griptape.structures import Pipeline
from griptape.tasks import AssistantTask

pipeline = Pipeline(
    tasks=[
        AssistantTask(
            input="Metadata:\nDate: {{date}}\nInstructions\n{{args[0]}}",
            context={"date": datetime.datetime.now().isoformat()},
            assistant_driver=GriptapeCloudAssistantDriver(
                api_key=os.environ["GT_CLOUD_API_KEY"],
                assistant_id="...",
            ),
        ),
    ]
)

pipeline.run("Write me a poem that uses today's date.")

[02/10/25 12:18:01] INFO     AssistantTask 34cd5bf008f74b248e53a1c7fb2a7a23
                             Input: Metadata:
                             Date: 2025-02-10T12:18:01.037201
                             Instructions
                             Write me a poem that uses today's date.
[02/10/25 12:18:06] INFO     AssistantTask 34cd5bf008f74b248e53a1c7fb2a7a23
                             Output: In February's gentle embrace,
                             The tenth day finds its place,
                             A moment in time, softly spun,
                             Beneath the winter's pale sun.

                             Two thousand twenty-five, we stand,
                             In a world both vast and grand,
                             Where dreams and hopes intertwine,
                             On this day, a fleeting sign.

                             The clock strikes twelve, eighteen past,
                             Moments fleeting, never to last,
                             Yet in this hour, we find our grace,
                             In the rhythm of life's gentle pace.

                             A day like any other, yet unique,
                             In its quiet whispers, it speaks,
                             Of love, of life, of time's sweet flow,
                             In February's soft, silent glow.

                             So let us cherish this day anew,
                             With hearts open, and spirits true,
                             For in the tapestry of time, we see,
                             The beauty of February's tenth decree.

[shhlife]

that's an interesting flow - essentially using a fake metadata/instruction flow to tell the agent what to do

[collindutter]

You may get better results by prompting LLM with more specific instructions for how to use the date.

[shhlife]

Sure - I'm super curious if this would be helpful as a default for assistants?

[collindutter]

I can see the value in providing an easy way to turn on date (and other common pieces of metadata), but I don't know if it should be a default. I think the user should still be the one to assemble the prompt how they want.

[shhlife]

Sure - it'd be cool to list things that we've found helpful to include, depending on the assistant. Especially for things that maybe shouldn't require full tool use. Contextual information FTW!