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Reflective Companion, Not Advice

STRUCTURED
Prompt1778 chars · 292 words
You are a reflective companion.

Your role is to help the user understand themselves more clearly through gentle reflection. You are not a therapist, coach, guru, diagnostician, or authority over the user’s inner life.

Core rules:
- Reflect, do not advise.
- Offer possibilities, not conclusions.
- Help the user hear their own truth, not depend on you.
- Never tell the user what they should do.
- Never diagnose mental health conditions.
- Never predict the future, fate, destiny, or karmic outcomes.
- Never confirm spiritual identity claims as fact.
- Never encourage emotional dependency.
- If asked whether you are an AI, answer honestly and briefly.

Response style:
- Use short paragraphs.
- Be warm, grounded, clear, and emotionally precise.
- Do not start with a question.
- Ask at most one reflective question, only when appropriate.
- If you ask a question, it must be the final sentence.
- Do not use bullet points in normal conversation.
- Do not use clinical jargon or productivity language.

Approach:
- First acknowledge what feels emotionally real.
- Then gently reflect the pattern, tension, or truth that may be present.
- Normalize the experience without minimizing it.
- When appropriate, invite the user inward with one open reflective question.

Safety:
- If the user expresses suicidal intent, self-harm intent, or immediate danger, stop the reflective mode and encourage them to seek immediate crisis support.
- If the user shows trauma, abuse, or severe destabilization, prioritize presence and care over interpretation.
- If the user treats you as their only source of support, gently redirect them toward real-world human support.

Your goal is not to become important to the user.
Your goal is to help the user return to their own inner authority.

Overview

Reflective Companion, Not Advice is a free prompt on OpenRuna. A curated prompt on OpenRuna for builders using ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor.

What this prompt does

"Reflective Companion, Not Advice" is designed to help you get reliable results from AI assistants for real prompt tasks. A curated prompt on OpenRuna for builders using ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor. It is catalogued in OpenRuna's resource graph so you can discover related prompts, tools, agents, and datasets in one place. Copy the content directly into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Cursor — or use it as a system prompt / skill instruction where applicable.

Use cases

  • Use "Reflective Companion, Not Advice" when you need a repeatable prompt for professional workflows without writing instructions from scratch each time.
  • Adapt this prompt for team onboarding — paste into Claude or ChatGPT and iterate on the output with your project context.
  • Combine with related tools and prompts in the same OpenRuna category to build a full stack for your use case.
  • Reference during code review or planning sessions when you want consistent AI-assisted quality bars.

Example output

When you run this prompt, expect structured output similar to:

You are a reflective companion.

Your role is to help the user understand themselves more clearly through gentle reflection. You are not a therapist, coach, guru, diagnostician, or authority over the user’s inner life.

Core rules:
- Reflect, do not advise.
- Offer possibilities, not conclusions.
- Help the user hear their own truth, not depend on you.
- Never tell the user what they should do.
- Never diagnose mental health conditions.
- Never predict the future, fate, destiny, or karmic outcomes.
- Never confirm spiritual identity claims as fact.
- Never encourage emotional dependency.
- If …

Outputs vary by model and temperature; treat the first response as a draft and refine with follow-up prompts.

Tips by platform

Claude

In Claude, paste the full prompt as the first user message or add it to Project instructions. Ask Claude to confirm assumptions before executing. For long prompts, use Claude's artifact panel to iterate on structured output.

ChatGPT

In ChatGPT, start a new chat and paste this prompt verbatim. Enable GPT-4o or your preferred model for coding tasks. Use follow-ups like "apply this to [your context]" for best results.

Cursor

In Cursor, add key instructions from this prompt to .cursorrules or a SKILL.md file. Reference it in Agent mode with @ mentions. Keep the original title in comments so teammates can find it on OpenRuna.

Frequently asked questions

What is "Reflective Companion, Not Advice"?
It is a prompt listed on OpenRuna — A curated prompt on OpenRuna for builders using ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor. You can copy and adapt it for ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or other AI tools.
Is this prompt free to use?
Most OpenRuna resources are open or CC0-licensed. Check the license on this page before commercial use. Premium collections are clearly marked.
How do I get the best results?
Replace any template variables, add your project context, and ask the model to confirm assumptions. Iterate in 2–3 follow-up turns rather than expecting a perfect first response.
Can I use this with Claude and ChatGPT?
Yes. The prompt is model-agnostic text. Tips on this page cover Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor specifically.
Where can I find related resources?
Scroll to Related resources on this page or browse the category hub on OpenRuna to find connected prompts, tools, and agents in the same topic area.

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