> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.textql.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Module 2 · Personal Context

> Goal: build your own personal context — preferences, vocabulary, a saved workflow — verify it persists across threads, and learn what must never go in it. (~20 minutes)

**Goal:** build your own personal context — preferences, vocabulary, a saved workflow — verify it persists across threads, and learn what must never go in it.

<Warning>
  **If a save lands in the wrong place** —

  If Ana says she can only save to the shared library, or writes to a generic path instead of `users/&lt;your-email&gt;/context.md`, the routing file from **Module 1** isn't loaded. Stop and fix the routing setup — the `ANA.md` file from Module 1 isn't loaded — before continuing; every later module depends on it.
</Warning>

## 2.1 · Preferences

```text Prompt theme={null}
Remember my preferences: I want concise answers with the headline number first; I work in [timezone]; default time windows to [the current quarter] unless I say otherwise; when I say "my accounts" I mean [accounts where I'm the owner].
```

<Check>
  **You'll see:** Ana confirm what she's saved to your personal context. This is the immediate layer — no review, no patch, effective now. Note what you just did *not* change: nothing about how Ana behaves for anyone else.
</Check>

## 2.2 · Personal vocabulary

```text Prompt theme={null}
Personal vocabulary: "the weekly" means [my Monday metrics review]; "the big three" means [my three largest accounts: names]; "EOQ crunch" means the last two weeks of a fiscal quarter.
```

<Check>
  **You'll see:** your shorthand saved. From now on, "how did the big three do during EOQ crunch?" just works — for you.
</Check>

## 2.3 · A saved personal workflow

The highest-leverage personal item — a multi-step ritual reduced to one phrase:

```text Prompt theme={null}
Save this as my "Monday prep" workflow: (1) pull [metric] for last week vs the prior week, (2) list [my accounts/deals] with no activity in 14+ days, (3) check [the team dashboard] for anything red, (4) format it all as a short brief I can read in two minutes. When I say "run my Monday prep," do all of it.
```

<Check>
  **You'll see:** the workflow recorded. Next Monday: two words instead of twenty minutes.
</Check>

## 2.4 · The persistence test

Saved context is only real if it survives the thread. Verify: **start a NEW thread** (context selections load fresh per thread), then ask:

```text Prompt theme={null}
What do you know about my preferences and vocabulary?
```

<Check>
  **You'll see:** your items come back. Then:
</Check>

```text Prompt theme={null}
Run my Monday prep.
```

<Check>
  **You'll see:** the personal layer carrying across threads. If something didn't persist, it was answered conversationally but never saved — re-ask with an explicit "remember/save this."
</Check>

## 2.5 · The hygiene rule — what NEVER goes in personal context

Personal context is for things that are true *about you*. The moment an item is true about the **business**, it belongs upstairs:

<table><tr><th>Item</th><th>Belongs in</th></tr><tr><td>"I like tables over prose"</td><td>Personal ✓</td></tr><tr><td>"Active member means \[definition]"</td><td>**Org** — a definition in personal context forks the truth: your answers silently diverge from your teammates' on the same question</td></tr><tr><td>"Our team never shows SQL to stakeholders"</td><td>**Role** — that's a persona behavior, not a preference</td></tr><tr><td>"The \[X] table is deprecated; use \[Y]"</td><td>**Org** (or connector-scoped) — everyone querying it needs to know</td></tr></table>

The test: *if a colleague asked the same question, should they get the same treatment?* Yes → org or role layer, via the reviewed path (Modules 3–4). The forked-truth failure mode is Module 7's first table entry for a reason — it's the most common context-stack disease, and it starts here, innocently.

<Frame caption="Personal context: set once, applies everywhere.">
  <img src="https://textqllabs.github.io/workshops/context-stack/assets/ctx-m1-personal.png" alt="Personal context: set once, applies everywhere." />
</Frame>

### ✅ Checkpoint

* [ ] Preferences, vocabulary, and one workflow are saved to your personal context
* [ ] A NEW thread recalled all three without re-explanation
* [ ] "Run my \[workflow]" executed the full ritual from the saved definition
* [ ] You applied the hygiene test to your own saved items and moved (or flagged) anything that's actually business truth