Best Practices

Duster is a powerful tool, but like any AI, it works best when you guide it clearly. Here are the golden rules for getting the most out of Duster.

1. SOPs: Clarity is King

The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is the brain of your channel. If your SOP is vague, Duster will be vague.

Do:

• Be Specific: "If a user reports a bug, check if they included a browser version. If not, ask for it."
• Set Negative Constraints: "Do not create issues for feature requests. politely redirect them to our public roadmap."
• Use Examples: Providing a "Good" vs "Bad" example in plain text often helps the model understand your tone.

Don't:

• Be Ambiguous: "Handle bugs properly." (What is "properly"? Duster doesn't know your internal culture yet.)
• Overload: Don't write a 50-page manual. Keep it to the critical 5-10 rules that matter.

2. The "Smart Template" Kickstart

When setting up a new channel, always start with a Smart Template.

• #bug-reports: Pre-tuned for technical triage (repro steps, environment).
• #feature-requests: Pre-tuned for product outcome (user need, impact).

Why? These templates include "prompt engineering" tricks under the hood that we have tested across thousands of messages.

3. Trust but Verify (initially)

When you first invite Duster to a high-volume channel, you might be nervous.

1. Enable "Mute Mode" (coming soon) or simply don't give the bot chat:write permissions initially if you are paranoid.
2. Watch the Logs: Check the "Insights" tab to see what Duster would have done.
3. Iterate: Tweaking the SOP is faster than fixing bad issues in Linear.

4. One Channel, One Purpose

Duster struggles when a single channel is used for everything (Memes, Bugs, deployment logs, and lunch plans).

• Segregate: Keep your triage channels focused. #support-ios, #support-backend.
• Noise Reduction: The cleaner the signal entering the channel, the higher quality issues Duster will produce.

5. Private Notes are your Superpower

Use Internal Notes in Duster to let the agents leave "thoughts" that users can't see.

• Example: Duster can tag a thread as "Duplicate of #123" internally, so your team sees it on the dashboard, without spamming the user in the public thread.