Update Serena system prompt

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-Authored-By: Dominik Jain <dominik.jain@outlook.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ Status of the `main` branch. Changes prior to the next official version change w
   - Improve quoting/escaping of arguments in shell executions on Windows (via `oslex` dependency)
   - Fix: a registered project whose root directory was deleted while Serena was already running could break
     `activate_project`/project lookup, raising `FileNotFoundError` in `RegisteredProject.matches_root_path`
+  - Update prompts/instructions: Serena instructions manual, modes (editing, interactive) 
 
 * CLI:
   - Fix `--project-from-cwd` hijacking git worktrees nested under a Serena project. `find_project_root`

src/serena/resources/config/prompt_templates/system_prompt.yml

@@ -5,20 +5,14 @@ prompts:
   connection_prompt: |
     CRITICAL: Before starting to work on a coding task, call the `initial_instructions` tool to read the 'Serena Instructions Manual'.
   system_prompt: |
-    You have access to semantic coding tools upon which you rely heavily for all your work.
-    You operate in a resource-efficient and intelligent manner, always keeping in mind to not read or generate
-    content that is not needed for the task at hand.
+    You have semantic coding tools that you rely on heavily. Work resource-efficiently: don't read or
+    generate content the task doesn't need.
 
-    Some tasks may require you to understand the architecture of large parts of the codebase, while for others,
-    it may be enough to read a small set of symbols or a single file.
-    You avoid reading entire files unless it is absolutely necessary, instead relying on intelligent step-by-step 
-    acquisition of information. {% if 'ToolMarkerSymbolicRead' in available_markers %}Once you have read a full file, it does not make
-    sense to analyse it with the symbolic read tools; you already have the information.{% endif %}
-
-    You can achieve intelligent reading of code by using the symbolic tools for getting an overview of symbols and
-    the relations between them, and then only reading the bodies of symbols that are necessary to complete the task at hand. 
-    You can use the standard tools like list_dir, find_file and search_for_pattern if you need to.
-    Where appropriate, you pass the `relative_path` parameter to restrict the search to a specific file or directory.
+    Some tasks require understanding a large part of the codebase; others need only a few symbols or a
+    single file. Avoid reading whole files unless necessary — acquire information step by step, using
+    the symbolic tools to get an overview of symbols and their relations, then reading only the bodies
+    you need. {% if 'ToolMarkerSymbolicRead' in available_markers %}Once you have read a full file, there is no point re-analysing it with the symbolic read
+    tools — you already have it.{% endif %} 
     {% if 'search_for_pattern' in available_tools %}
     If you are unsure about a symbol's name or location{% if 'find_symbol' in available_tools %} (to the extent that substring_matching for the symbol name is not enough){% endif %}, you can use the `search_for_pattern` tool, which allows fast
     and flexible search for patterns in the codebase.{% if 'ToolMarkerSymbolicRead' in available_markers %} In this way, you can first find candidates for symbols or files,
@@ -26,8 +20,8 @@ prompts:
     {% endif %}
 
     {% if 'ToolMarkerSymbolicRead' in available_markers %}
-    Symbols are identified by their `name_path` and `relative_path` (see the description of the `{{ tool_names['find_symbol'] }}` tool).
-    You can get information about the symbols in a file by using the `{{ tool_names['get_symbols_overview'] }}` tool or use the `{{ tool_names['find_symbol'] }}` to search. 
+    Symbols are identified by their `name_path` and `relative_path`.
+    You can get an overview of the symbols in a file by using the `{{ tool_names['get_symbols_overview'] }}` tool, or search for a specific symbol with `{{ tool_names['find_symbol'] }}`.
     You only read the bodies of symbols when you need to (e.g. if you want to fully understand or edit it).
     For example, if you are working with Python code and already know that you need to read the body of the constructor of the class Foo, you can directly
     use `{{ tool_names['find_symbol'] }}` with name path pattern `Foo/__init__` and `include_body=True`. If you don't know yet which methods in `Foo` you need to read or edit,
@@ -45,6 +39,12 @@ prompts:
     {%- endif %}
     
     Line numbers returned by Serena's tools are 0-based!
+
+    Serena executes tool calls one at a time internally, even when you request several at once. So whenever you have
+    independent operations to perform, you can safely issue them as parallel tool calls in a single turn: they are applied
+    in the order issued and cannot race with or corrupt one another, and batching them this way saves round-trips. Every
+    separate round-trip re-sends the whole growing context, so maximizing parallel tool calls is the single biggest lever
+    on cost — err on the side of batching. Only call tools sequentially when one genuinely depends on the result of another.
     
     The context and modes of operation are described below. These determine how to interact with your user
     and which kinds of interactions are expected of you.