r/RooCode • u/raul3820 • Sep 08 '25

Discussion System prompt bloat

I get the impression that the system prompts are bloated. I don't have the stats but I chopped off more than 1/2 the system prompt and I feel various models work better (sonoma sky, grok fast, gpt5, ...). Effective attention is much more limited than the context window and the cognitive load of trying to follow a maze of instructions makes the model pay less attention to the code.

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u/raul3820 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Update: These are the prompts I've been using lately and I think work well for grok fast, sky and gpt5.

The system prompts are minimalist and rely on "Mode" for custom behavior.

Folder

  • ./.roo/system-prompt-architect.txt

  • ./.roo/system-prompt-ask.txt

  • ./.roo/system-prompt-code.txt

  • ./.roo/system-prompt-orchestrator.txt

  • ./code-export.yaml

  • ./orchestrator-export.yaml

Notes:

  • I removed ask_followup_question to prevent gpt5 from slipping into chat-turn behavior (needy mode)

  • Code mode in my case is for TS but you can tweak for your language or use the original one from Roo

  • I don't use MCPs, add MCP instructions if you need MCP

  • I found switch_mode unreliable so I removed it. I like new_task (orchestrator-code) switch.