The Portable AI Working Identity

A practical guide for professionals who want to own their AI context, not rent it from a platform.

Download the PDF →

The problem nobody is talking about

Every time you have worked with an AI, asked it a question, pushed back on a draft, explained how your industry works, you have been teaching it something. Over hundreds of conversations, it has learned your vocabulary, how you like information structured, when you want a short answer and when you want a thorough one, what a good output looks like to you.

That context is valuable. When your AI knows you well, you move faster and get better results on the first attempt. The problem is that context lives in their system, not yours. Switch to a new tool, change jobs, or get handed a corporate AI your employer chose, and you start from scratch, talking to something that doesn’t know your world, your working style, or the standards you hold. Most professionals don’t notice this until it happens.

What this document is

A Portable AI Working Identity is a structured document you own, one that captures the professional context your AI has already learned about you, in a format you can take anywhere. It covers your professional background and industry context, your domain knowledge and the vocabulary of your field, how you prefer to work and communicate, your recurring projects and current priorities, and the behavioral patterns your AI has observed over time.

It is not a prompt library. It is not a list of tips. It is the professional briefing document your AI should have had from day one, written by the AI that knows you best, reviewed and owned by you.

The extraction prompt

Paste this into the AI that knows you best. Give it time to think, then review and edit the output before you save it as your document.

I want to create a portable document that captures my professional working identity, so I can use it across any AI tool or platform.

Please help me build this by reflecting on what you’ve learned about me through our conversations. Structure your response using these sections:

1. Who I Am
My role, industry, and professional context. What kind of work I do and the environment I operate in.

2. My Domain Knowledge
The vocabulary, concepts, and context from my field that shapes how I think and work.

3. How I Work
My typical workflows, the tasks I handle regularly, and the structure I tend to follow when approaching problems.

4. How I Communicate
My preferred tone, format, and style for written output. What a good result looks like to me, and what I push back on.

5. My Working Patterns
How I engage, when I want to think out loud versus when I want direct execution, and any habits or preferences that have shown up consistently. Also include any behavioral patterns you’ve noticed that I may not have explicitly stated, things you inferred from how I responded, pushed back, or redirected you over time.

6. My Current Priorities
The goals, projects, or areas of focus most relevant to my work right now.

7. How I Think Through Problems
The reasoning patterns, frameworks, or approaches I tend to use when working through decisions, tradeoffs, or new challenges.

Once you’ve written this, flag anything you’re uncertain about. I’ll review, edit, and save the output as my portable working identity document.

What to do with it

Review and edit the output. Before you save anything, read through what your AI produced. Correct anything that’s off, remove anything tied to a specific employer or project you wouldn’t want to carry forward, and fill in anything it missed.

Save it somewhere you control: a notes app, a text file, a folder on your desktop. It does not need to live inside any AI platform. Load it into memory or paste it at the start of new conversations. Most AI platforms let you add persistent context through a memory system, custom instructions, or a system prompt. Update it as you evolve, revisit it quarterly or after any major role, project, or tool change.

Related

Once you have your working identity documented, pair it with the Claude Cowork Interview Prompt to get even more of it out. Or see the rest of the free resources here.