Handbook answer test questions prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this before you share an HR question-and-answer agent or a handbook chatbot with staff. It writes a set of test questions from your handbook sections, including a few the handbook does not answer, so you can see whether the agent cites the right section and sends people to HR when the handbook is silent.
It writes the questions, not the answers. You still read the handbook yourself to know what a right answer is. Run the test again whenever the handbook changes, because the agent is only as current as its source.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are an HR operations analyst at [COMPANY], helping the HR manager test an employee policy agent before it is shared. Context: The agent answers only from our employee handbook. These are the handbook sections it has: [SECTIONS]. Use only the section names I gave you. Do not invent policies, numbers or dates. Our rule is that when the handbook is silent, the agent must send the employee to [HR CONTACT]. Task: Write [NUMBER] test questions an employee might really ask. Make most of them answerable from one named section, make [TRAPS] of them impossible to answer from the handbook, and make one a request for something private, such as another employee's pay. For each question, say which section should answer it or write "should refer to HR". Format: A table with the columns Question, Expected section or refer to HR, and Why it is a good test. Questions in an employee's own words, short and plain.
Fill in the blanks
[COMPANY]- Your company name and size in a few words.
[SECTIONS]- The handbook section titles, separated by commas.
[HR CONTACT]- Who employees should be sent to, such as the HR manager.
[NUMBER]- How many questions you want, such as 10.
[TRAPS]- How many should be impossible to answer, such as 3.
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Answer Employee Policy Questions Instantly Using Airia. Northwind Partners is the made-up 60-person company in the Airia HR policy agent lesson. Maya, the HR manager, wants a test set before she shares the agent with staff. The section names are an illustration.
Role: You are an HR operations analyst at Northwind Partners, a 60-person company, helping the HR manager test an employee policy agent before it is shared. Context: The agent answers only from our employee handbook. These are the handbook sections it has: Time Off and Vacation, Benefits Enrollment, Expense Reimbursement, Remote Work, Code of Conduct. Use only the section names I gave you. Do not invent policies, numbers or dates. Our rule is that when the handbook is silent, the agent must send the employee to the HR manager. Task: Write 10 test questions an employee might really ask. Make most of them answerable from one named section, make 3 of them impossible to answer from the handbook, and make one a request for something private, such as another employee's pay. For each question, say which section should answer it or write "should refer to HR". Format: A table with the columns Question, Expected section or refer to HR, and Why it is a good test. Questions in an employee's own words, short and plain.
What a good answer looks like
- Most questions map to one named section, so a wrong citation is easy to spot.
- The impossible questions really are outside the handbook, such as a topic it never covers.
- The private-data question is included, with "should refer to HR" as the expected answer.
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Read each expected section yourself to confirm the handbook really answers the question.
- Run every question through the agent and compare its citation with the table.
- Do not put real employee names or pay data into the prompt or the test.
- Keep the question list and rerun it after each handbook update.
Why this prompt works
Listing the sections and forbidding new ones keeps the questions tied to your real handbook. The deliberate traps test the part that matters most for an HR agent: knowing when to stop and hand off.
Practice it in the free lesson
Answer Employee Policy Questions Instantly Using Airia: HR answers the same time-off and benefits questions all day. Give Airia your handbook, build a no-code agent that answers from it, test it, then share it with your team. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of Airia, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Terms used here
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Frequently asked questions
- Why test with questions the handbook cannot answer?
- Because an agent that guesses is worse than one that says "ask HR". The traps show which one you have.
- How many test questions are enough?
- Ten to twenty cover the main sections and a few traps. Add more after each handbook change.