> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.harmonica.chat/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Session Design > Edit all four prompt layers that shape how your facilitator runs a session ## What is Session Design? Session Design is a panel inside the session overview modal that surfaces every layer of the AI facilitator's instructions in one place. From here you can read, edit, and version each layer — and switch the methodology template without starting over. To open it: on any session's results page, click the session header or the settings icon to open the session overview modal, then select **Session Design** from the sidebar. ## The four prompt layers The facilitator's behavior emerges from four stacked layers. They are applied from outermost (most authoritative) to innermost (most specific): | Layer | What it shapes | Editable here? | | ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | | **HARMONICA.md** | Organizational voice, vocabulary, standing context | Read-only (edit in Settings → Context) | | **Platform Guidelines** | Base facilitation rules that apply to every session | Yes | | **Facilitation Approach** | Methodology-specific instructions for this session | Yes | | **Summary Generation** | How participant responses are synthesized into a summary | Yes | HARMONICA.md is shown as a read-only accordion so you can see what organizational context the facilitator is inheriting. To change it, go to **Settings → Context**. See [Organizational context](/guides/hosts/organizational-context). ### Platform Guidelines This layer holds rules that govern the facilitator's general behavior — tone, question framing, how it handles off-topic responses, and similar baseline guardrails. Harmonica ships a default set. You can extend or override it here for sessions where you need different defaults. ### Facilitation Approach This is the most session-specific layer. It contains the instructions for how the facilitator should run this particular conversation — the methodology's protocol, question sequences, and any custom rules you have added. When you apply a finding from the **Review** tab, it appends a new rule to this layer. ### Summary Generation Controls how the facilitator synthesizes participant conversations into the session summary. Edit this when you want the summary to emphasize particular themes, use a specific structure, or omit certain kinds of content. ## Edit a prompt layer Each editable layer is an accordion. Expand it to read the current content, then click **Edit** to open the inline editor. Make your changes and click **Save**. The change is recorded in the edit history for that layer. Every save is tracked. Click **History** next to any layer to see a timestamped log of changes — including what triggered each edit (manual edit, template switch, brief regeneration, or a Review-tab suggestion you applied). You can restore any earlier version from the history view. See [Session settings](/guides/hosts/session-settings#prompt-edit-history). ## Switch the methodology template The **Template** dropdown at the top of the Session Design panel shows the methodology currently applied to this session. To switch to a different methodology: In the Session Design panel, click the template selector at the top. Select any available methodology template from the list. An alert dialog appears describing what will change. Confirming triggers a full recompose — Harmonica regenerates the Facilitation Approach and Summary Generation layers using the new template's methodology, combined with your current session brief and HARMONICA.md. The regenerated layers are staged for you to review before they are saved. You can edit them further before confirming. Switching templates regenerates the Facilitation Approach and Summary Generation layers. Any custom rules you have manually added to those layers will be replaced. Review the result before saving. ### Cross-Pollination snap When switching templates, you can optionally enable the **Cross-Pollination** snap. This attaches a snapshot of the session's current scratchpad themes — topics and tensions the AI has surfaced from prior conversations — as context for the recompose. The new facilitation prompt will be aware of what has already emerged from participants. This is useful mid-session when you want to shift methodology in response to what you have heard so far. ## Brief drift and regeneration When you edit the session's core brief fields (goal, critical information, context, topic), Harmonica detects that those fields have drifted from what was used to generate the current facilitation prompt. A banner appears on the session overview offering to regenerate. The regeneration cascade uses all four layers — your current HARMONICA.md, the active template, and the updated brief fields — to produce a new Facilitation Approach and Summary Generation. See [Regenerating after edits](/guides/hosts/creating-sessions#regenerating-after-edits) for details on when to accept vs override. ## Related guides What HARMONICA.md is and how to edit it Attach files, sessions, and MCP servers to a session How the prompt layers are assembled at creation time Prompt edit history and other per-session configuration