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How-tos

Five short recipes. Each one was checked against a live workspace.

1 · Run a starter prompt

Learn Winston, What to expect if you want, Run this. Chat opens with the prompt already sent. Wait, read the bottom, reply to refine ("Only the Downtown store", "rank by units"). Starter prompts don't ask for store or dates first: they use defaults (all stores, a recent window) and state them in the answer.

2 · Write your own prompt

A good prompt: what + which stores + time window + how to rank + what to do with it.

  • "Which products went out of stock at Downtown in the last 14 days, ranked by lost sales? Don't publish anything."
  • "For all stores, compare this week to last week by category. Flag anything down more than 15%."
  • "Reorder list for [vendor] from the last 30 days of sales, one tab per store, as an Excel file."

Name stores the way your POS does. Give a window. Say the output you want. If the answer is off, reply with what's wrong; context stays in the session. New topic, New Chat. Stop a run by typing abort. How to write a good prompt, and the 60-second spot check, are on Asking Winston.

3 · Approve or Reject

  1. Card appears under Work Audits → Pending (also Overview → Pending Approvals).
  2. Read the description. It says exactly what will happen.
  3. Open in new window to preview. Changes? Edit in Chat.
  4. Approve: the item moves to Completed. Approved files and pages land in the Library; other actions go to the destination named on the Work Audit card. Reject: Rejected tab, nothing sent, chat answer untouched.
  5. Copy link shares the card with a teammate.

4 · Schedule a report

After a run you like, in the same chat:

"Schedule the Daily Business Recap to run every Monday at 6am Eastern and save the result to the Library. Do not publish a webpage or send anything outside Winston. Reply with exactly what you scheduled."

Checked Aug 22, 2026 · Winston replies in 2 to 3 minutes with exactly what it scheduled. Check the day and time, the timezone, and the delivery line; your wording sets delivery, and delivery on means each run goes out with no Approve. Details and the warning that matters: Automation.

5 · Get results out

WantSayLands
Spreadsheet"Give me this as an Excel file"Work Audit, then Library → Spreadsheets
Web page"Publish this as a webpage"Work Audit, then Library → Webpages (access code)
PDF"Make this a PDF"Work Audit, then Library
Slack"Post to #channel" (connector needed)Posted, or parked in Work Audits if Winston routes it there; ask to see it first to force a gate
Email"Prepare this as an email to [vendor] for approval" (Google Workspace)Sent, or parked in Work Audits; ask to see it first to force a gate
Paper"Publish as a webpage", then printLibrary, then print from the browser

A schedule with delivery on always skips the audit. Draft vs Ready, and when to ask for a web page instead of a chat answer: Review and approve.