Real Agent Cases

Sort a Google Sheet in a custom priority order with Claude in Chrome

Posted
by @AaronBergman18
Last checked
Method:
How we verify

Evidence: Screenshots or logsThe source shows screenshots, a transcript or the agent's output.

FailureThe source says the agent did not get the job done.

What went wrong: Repeatedly sorted alphabetically instead of in the custom order.

Outcome

Asked to sort a Google Sheet in a custom order (critical, high, medium, low), Claude for Chrome kept trying to sort it alphabetically instead, per the poster's screenshot.

Agent

Claude in Chrome

Prompt Improved prompt

Strengthened by us to avoid the problem in the source. Not tested by the poster. It doesn't change what happened in the source.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing.

Goal: Sort my sheet by priority in the order I choose, not A–Z.

Fill in before running: Which sheet and column, and what's the exact order?

What I need from you:
- The sheet link and column ([COLUMN])
- The order (e.g. critical → high → medium → low)
- The exact priority order, written out (e.g. Urgent > High > Medium > Low)

Rules:
- Don't use a plain A–Z sort. Add a helper column mapping each value to a number (critical=1, high=2, medium=3, low=4) and sort by that.
- Check the first and last 5 rows after sorting and show me.
- Don't change any other data; delete the helper column only if I ask.
- Tell me if any value doesn't match the four levels and leave those rows at the bottom.
- Use a helper column with a number for each priority, sort by it, then hide or delete the helper column only if I agree.
- Check the first and last 5 rows after sorting and tell me if anything landed out of order.

Output: The sorted sheet and a quick before/after check.

You'll know it worked when: all critical rows come first and low rows last.
The prompt they actually used (our rebuild)

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

Sort this sheet in a custom order: critical -> high -> medium -> low.

Source

https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1983740965660844115

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