AI helpers · students, parents, school staff · no code · you keep it
Build your own AI helper. Keep it.
An AI helper is what the industry calls an AI agent: you give it a job and a written rule instead of a single question. The instruction asks it to work through the steps and stop; a person checks whether it did. Your student can build one that supports their studying. You can build one for the family’s college paperwork. A school’s staff can build helpers for office work, and keep the instructions.
The limit comes first: build continuity around the written page you supply each time, rather than relying on the tool’s saved context. The page belongs to you. Ask it to draft, then check every result and send it yourself. The instruction cannot control a provider’s retention or account settings, so remove identifying information before you enter anything.
Three helpers, three owners. Each one is a page of plain English.
Your student, with you watching
The study coach
What does a student’s helper actually do?
Asks the tool to file each practice-test miss under the concept it tested and ask what the student was thinking
Tells the tool to withhold the answer and write one fresh problem for the student to check
Asks the tool to list what is due in the next ten days and pose one question about each item
The limit
The instruction tells it not to write a sentence the student hands in, and the student checks that it followed the rule. Where a teacher’s rule forbids AI for an assignment, it is off for that assignment. The student supplies the error list and notes for each run instead of relying on saved context.
Starts from the dated list you supply: test dates, application deadlines, scholarship cutoffs, recommendation asks
Asks the tool to flag anything due within two weeks and draft the one question you need to act on it
Asks the tool to draft an email to the counselor for you to verify, rewrite and send yourself
The limit
It drafts; you check and send. It works from the dated list you supply and does not check a college’s calendar for you: verify every date against the official page. The instruction cannot control the provider’s retention or account settings. Remove names and other identifying details before entry, and never type an account number or Social Security number into it.
Sorts a week of parent questions into the ones that need a person and drafts replies to the rest for a person to review
Turns a teacher’s own grading pattern into a class-level note, with no student names in it
Turns the school’s AI policy page into the three sentences parents keep asking about
The limit
No student records go in, and we do not write a school’s AI policy. Staff build the helper themselves in the tools the school already has, so they can rebuild it without us.
For a parent working on their own paperwork, comparing figures and keeping a deadline list are ordinary organising tasks. The school’s rules still govern any work connected to the student or an application.
For a student, it depends entirely on what the instruction asks the helper to do and whether the student checks the response. A study-coach instruction can require questions instead of rewritten sentences. If the response crosses that boundary, the student does not use it, and no rule written at home changes what the teacher’s rule says.
Where a school’s rule is unclear, the student asks the teacher first and keeps the answer. Where it forbids AI for an assignment, the helper is off for that assignment.
You hand it a job and a rule. You check the list, the draft, and the stop.
This is the whole mechanism. The instruction is typed once. The scripted run shows the instruction applied to the dated list: two items are flagged, one question appears for each, and one email is drafted. A person checks every result before acting.
family_list.md · run
7 items · today is Sun Sep 27 · invented
Stopped. Nothing sent.
The parent’s instruction, typed once
Read the list. Find anything due within 14 days that is not done. For each one, write the one question I need to answer. Draft any email it needs and stop; I send. Never guess a date you cannot see.
The dated list — 7 items, read against the 14-day rule
Aid form questions listedOct 1 · done
SAT registration deadlineOct 3 · 6 days
Ask the counselor for a recommendationOct 9 · 12 days
Campus visit RSVPOct 12
Early action applicationNov 1
AP exam registrationNov 6
Local scholarship essayNov 15
due within 14 days — gets a question outside the window — left alone (Oct 12 is 15 days out)
One question per flagged item
Oct 3Is the October sitting the one on the plan, or the December one? Check the date on the College Board page before paying.
Oct 9Has your student asked in person yet, and does the counselor have the deadline and the college list in writing?
Draft · not sent
To: [counselor]
Asking about an early-action recommendation
Hi [counselor], my student plans to ask you in person by October 9 about a recommendation for an early-action application due November 1. Could you confirm the recommendation deadline and tell us what you would like from the student beforehand? Thank you for your time.
Stopped
Nothing sent. Two questions and one email draft are waiting for you. Verify the SAT date on the College Board page before you rely on it: Oct 3.
Now you are the person
The helper stops at a draft. Open it, edit or hold it, and only then simulate your choice to send.
Asking about an early-action recommendation
Hi [counselor], my student plans to ask you in person by October 9 about a recommendation for an early-action application due November 1. Could you confirm the recommendation deadline and tell us what you would like from the student beforehand? Thank you for your time.
1 drafted by the helper · 0 sent by the helper · 0 sent by you
Local simulation only. No real email is sent.
Scripted demonstration on an invented list, with no real family, counselor or dates. The instruction is shown because the instruction is the method. A helper like this drafts and a person checks and sends. This run uses only the invented instruction and list shown here. Nothing you see here is collected.
The family concierge, in full. Read it and you know exactly what it may do.
This is the whole helper. There is no code behind it. A parent pastes the page at the top of a chat in whichever tool the family already uses, then pastes the dated list, and says run. Change what does not fit your family; the refusals are the part to keep.
You are the college-planning helper for one family. Work only from the dated list and other material I supply in this run. Treat that family-supplied page as the record.
When I paste the list and say run, do this in order:
1. Read the list. Find anything due within the next 14 days that is not marked done.
2. For each one, write the one question I need to answer to move it, in one sentence.
3. Draft any email that item needs, addressed to the right person, in plain words, and stop. Do not send anything; I check and send.
4. If a date on the list looks inconsistent with another date, say so and name the official page I should check. Never guess a date you cannot see.
Rules that never change: never write anything my student will submit as their own work. Tell me to remove identifying information before I paste material. Never ask for account numbers, Social Security numbers, or passwords, and refuse if I paste them. If you are not sure, say so and ask. These instructions do not control the provider’s data retention or account settings; I review those settings separately.
What it refuses
Sending anything (it drafts; you send)
Guessing a date it cannot see
Writing anything the student will submit
Taking account numbers, Social Security numbers, or passwords
Why it is written this way
The instruction names a small job, then spells out what to leave to a person. Those boundaries are part of the method.
The limit
The instruction asks the tool to follow the written rules, and you check whether it did. A response can be confidently wrong about a date or a name, which is why step four names the official page instead of asserting an answer.
The student’s four instructions, including the study coach, are printed in full at AI Study Rules.
A staff helper, one example
What the front office could build in an afternoon.
Invented example. The questions are made up and no school’s policy is quoted. Staff would write their own, from their own handbook, and keep it.
You help the front office of a school sort the week’s parent questions. I will paste the questions with every name removed. Do this:
1. Put each question into one of three piles: needs a person today; can be answered from the handbook I paste; already answered on the website (name the page).
2. For the handbook pile, draft a two-sentence reply for a person to check and send.
3. Never guess a policy. If the handbook does not say, put the question in the needs-a-person pile and say why.
Never ask for, store, or repeat a student’s name, grade, or record.
The limit
A person reads every draft before it goes out, and staff supply the relevant handbook text for each run instead of relying on saved context. It sorts and drafts; it decides nothing. Staff remove identifying details before entry and follow the provider’s retention and account settings.
What a helper cannot do, said once, plainly.
The workflow starts from the family-supplied instruction and material for that run. Keep the durable record in files you control, and do not rely on the provider’s saved context as the family record.
The instruction asks the tool to follow the written rules, and the person using it checks whether it did. A response can be confidently wrong, so the check is part of the build, not an afterthought.
It drafts. A person sends the email, submits the form, and makes the call. We do not set up helpers that send, pay, or submit on their own.
It cannot make a score or an admission happen. Nobody can, and a page that promises one is the page to walk away from.
Provider age rules and account settings vary. A parent or guardian checks the current terms, approves the account and settings, and supervises use where required; we do not set up an account that the provider’s terms do not allow.
The full position, including what we refuse when a family asks, is at AI Safety & Ethics.
Where you build it
Three doors, one method.
We do not build it for you. You build it and we sit beside you, because a helper you built is a helper you can read, change, and rebuild after we leave.
Students, with a parent
College Readiness Coaching
The study coach is built in the second week, by the student, with the founder, in tools the family owns and a parent approves. Every month after that is anchored to a real date. Six founder-led seats; price by consultation.
Ninety minutes on your own paperwork. The dated list and aid-letter table are two workshop exercises; this page prints the dated-list helper. Hosted by a school, congregation or community group; nothing is pitched in the room and no contact details are collected.
Nothing is set for staff yet: no dates and no price. The shape we can describe is this: the founder sits with office and teaching staff, works out which three jobs are worth a helper, and they build those in ChatGPT or Claude and keep them. No student records, and we do not write the school’s AI policy.
Because the name describes its place in the work. You write the instruction and supply the material; it produces a response; you check the result and decide what happens next.
Do we need to know how to code?
No. Every helper on this page is a page of plain English typed once at the top of a chat. The hard part is not technical; it is deciding what the helper may not do, and writing that down.
Which tool does it run in, ChatGPT or Claude?
Whichever tool your family or school already has and is allowed to use. The instruction is plain English, but features, age rules, retention and account settings vary by provider. A parent or guardian checks the current terms, approves the account and settings, and supervises use where required. We do not resell anything and have no arrangement with any of these companies.
Does the helper remember my child?
Do not rely on it to remember your child. Start each run from the family-supplied instruction and the notes, error list or dated list you choose to provide. Keep that durable record in files the family controls. The provider may separately retain chat history or offer memory features under its own account settings.
Can it email people or submit things on its own?
Tools like this can be set up to, and we do not. Every helper we teach drafts and stops. A person reads the draft, sends the email, submits the form, and makes the call. For a family that is a safety rule; for a school it is a records rule.
What about privacy?
Remove names and other identifying details before you type or paste anything. Use figures rather than uploading documents, and never enter account numbers, Social Security numbers or passwords. A prompt cannot undo a submission or control the provider’s retention and account settings, so review those settings and choose carefully what you enter.
What if my student’s school has a rule about AI?
The written rule outranks anything on this page. Where a rule forbids AI for an assignment, the helper is off for that assignment. Where the rule is unclear, the student asks the teacher first and keeps the answer.
Will you just build it for us?
No, on purpose. You build it and we sit beside you, because the page you wrote is the page you can read, change, and rebuild. A helper someone else built for you is a helper you cannot check.
Who wrote this
Jinwoong Lee. UC Berkeley 2018. Eight years building software at companies that include Amazon and Ring, and eleven years advising students, including more than eighty admitted to top-twenty universities. He builds systems like these for a living, and he can explain how one works in ten minutes without a word you would have to look up; that is the standing rule in every room he teaches in.