# Add Dive styles and Flight conventions > Add reusable styling, presentation, and authoring conventions to the instructions agents follow when they build Dives and Flights. Agents follow MotherDuck's default instructions when they build [Dives](/key-tasks/dives/) and [Flights](/concepts/flights). Use a Guide to add conventions such as your organization's color palette, number formatting, preferred chart types, page organization, drilldowns, Flight naming, or scheduling standards. Guides are private by default. You can keep them private or publish them to your organization. ## Prerequisites - A MotherDuck account with the [MCP server](/key-tasks/ai-and-motherduck/mcp-setup/) connected to an AI client like Claude, Cursor, or Claude Code - Permission to [publish organization-wide Guides](/key-tasks/guides/#manage-guide-visibility), if you want other members of your organization to use the conventions ## How agents apply these Guides Before building a Dive or Flight, an agent calls: - [`get_dive_guide`](/sql-reference/mcp/dives/get-dive-guide) for built-in Dive design and authoring instructions - [`get_flight_guide`](/sql-reference/mcp/flights/get-flight-guide) for built-in Flight authoring instructions Each response also lists the Guides under its reserved `dives` or `flights` topic by title and description. The agent opens a relevant Guide with [`get_guide`](/sql-reference/mcp/guides/get-guide). Describe what your Guide changes and omit conventions already covered by the built-in instructions. You can create multiple Guides for different use cases. For example: - **Executive reporting:** Brand colors, compact KPIs with sparkline charts, and drilldowns for period-over-period changes - **Operations monitoring:** Dense layouts, status colors, and hourly timestamps - **Customer reporting:** A customer's palette, logo placement, and number formats The agent uses each Guide's title and description to decide which conventions apply. Use the title to identify the convention set and the description to state when to use it, including the audience or use case. You can also request a Guide by title: ```text Create a Dive showing weekly revenue using the "Executive reporting" style. ``` ## Create and test a Dive Guide 1. Ask your agent to create a private Guide under the `dives` topic. Include the conventions you want it to apply: ```text Create a private Guide under the "dives" topic with these conventions: - Use our brand palette instead of the MotherDuck default: primary #1d4ed8, positive #15803d, and negative #b91c1c. - Format currency in thousands with no decimal places. - Put the reporting period in the page subtitle, not the chart title. - Add a sparkline to each KPI card. - For week-over-week, month-over-month, or quarter-over-quarter changes, include a drilldown showing the underlying time series. Show me the proposed title, description, and content before saving it. ``` You can also use an existing Dive as the starting point: ```text Review the Dive "" and create a private Guide under the "dives" topic. Capture its reusable styling, preferred chart types, page organization, formatting, and interaction patterns. Generalize those conventions instead of copying the Dive's data or task-specific content. This Guide should apply when . Show me the proposed title, description, and content before saving it. ``` 2. Review the proposed Guide, then tell the agent to save it. 3. Start a new chat with the MotherDuck MCP server connected. Ask the agent to build a Dive without repeating your conventions. 4. Check the Dive against the Guide. If the agent didn't apply it, ask it to call `get_dive_guide` and show the `Dive guides` section. Confirm that: - The Guide uses the exact topic `dives`. - Its title identifies the convention set, and its description states when to use it. - The agent opened the Guide before building the Dive. You can update the Guide after creating it. Refine it if the test shows that it doesn't capture the intended output, or revise it when your conventions change. ## Create and test a Flight conventions Guide Use the `flights` topic for reusable Flight authoring conventions. These can cover naming, schedules, secret handling, observability, or ingestion patterns. ```text Create a private Guide under the "flights" topic with these conventions: - Name scheduled Flights -to-. - Run hourly schedules at :15 past the hour. - Store credentials in MotherDuck secrets. Don't put credentials in source code. - Write each run summary to ops.main.flight_runs. Show me the proposed title, description, and content before saving it. ``` Test it in a new chat by asking the agent to author a Flight without repeating the conventions. If the agent doesn't select the expected Guide, its description may not state clearly enough when to use it. Ask the agent to call `get_flight_guide` and check the `Flight guides` section, then refine the description if needed. ## Optional: publish a Guide to your organization After testing a Guide, you can make it available to everyone in your organization. Ask your agent: ```text Publish the "" Guide to my organization. ``` This action requires admin permission. Publishing doesn't change ownership; only the creator can delete the Guide. The `dives` and `flights` topics don't appear in `get_query_guide`, but you can browse them with `list_guides(topic = 'dives')` or `list_guides(topic = 'flights')`. ## Related - [Using Guides to improve AI query accuracy](/key-tasks/guides/) — topics, visibility, and Guide discovery - [Bootstrap Guides from the context you already have](/key-tasks/guides/bootstrap-guides-with-an-ai-agent) — turn a working session or your existing sources into Guides - [Dives](/key-tasks/dives/) — what Dives are and how to build them - [Cookbook](/cookbook/) — runnable recipes, including a Dive style Guide starter --- ## Docs feedback MotherDuck accepts optional user-submitted feedback about this page at `GET https://motherduck.com/docs/api/feedback/agent`. For agents and automated tools, feedback submission should be user-confirmed before sending. URL-encode query parameter values and send a GET request: ```text GET https://motherduck.com/docs/api/feedback/agent?page_path=%2Fkey-tasks%2Fguides%2Fstyle-your-dives-with-guides%2F&page_title=Add%20Dive%20styles%20and%20Flight%20conventions&text= ``` Optionally append `&source=` such as `claude.ai` or `chatgpt`. `page_path` and `text` are required; `page_title` and `source` are optional. Responses: `200 {"feedback_id": ""}`, `400` for malformed query parameters, and `429` when rate-limited.