Question

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Prompt Grounding in a Stateless World

When we say “CFA-grade” in product language, we mean three engineering layers: domain-scoped system text, client portfolio summary, and server-injected live quotes—plus an optional attachment lane for paid users.

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Layer 1 — SYSTEM_PROMPT (persona + guardrails)

In app/api/ai/chat/route.ts, SYSTEM_PROMPT constrains the assistant to finance, tells it to use portfolio context when present, to use “Current quote data” when injected, and to treat “File the user included” as authoritative for that turn. It also nudges 1–3 markdown citations to reputable sources when helpful.

This is how we steer the model without storing conversation state server-side.

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Layer 2 — Portfolio context block

The handler builds:

const contextBlock = context
  ? `\n\nPortfolio context:\n${context}`
  : '\n\n(No portfolio context provided.)';

context is the entire output of buildPortfolioContext (Part 2–3). So grounding for holdings is exactly what the client compiled — not a server-side join against a portfolios table.

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Layer 3 — Live quote injection (extractSymbolHints)

The route parses the user message for tickers and known names (NAME_TO_TICKER), caps symbols, calls internal /api/quote, and appends a quote block into the system string. That gives price truth without the user pasting screenshots.

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Layer 4 — Attachments (paid)

const attachedBlock = attachedContent
  ? `\n\nFile the user included (use this):\n${attachedContent}`
  : '';
const systemPrompt = SYSTEM_PROMPT + contextBlock + quoteBlock + attachedBlock;

MAX_ATTACHED_CONTENT_LENGTH = 60_000 on the server caps abuse. Different privacy contract than default top-N context.

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Provider routing

Comments in route.ts: Gemini preferred when GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY is set (gemini-1.5-flash free tier, gemini-1.5-pro paid); OpenAI fallback when configured or when Gemini errors.

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Why 10k CSV rows never hit the model (default path)

Compaction happens client-side before the request. The model sees tens of lines, not tens of thousands.

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Part 6 of Sovereign Engineering.

Read the full Sovereign Intelligence book or try the app.