diff --git a/docs/faq.md b/docs/faq.md
index 289df639a..0b691c3ab 100644
--- a/docs/faq.md
+++ b/docs/faq.md
@@ -360,3 +360,10 @@ Then just do:
 pipx install aider
 ```
 
+## Can I specify guidelines or conventions?
+
+Yes, just write some extra instructions in a file
+like `INSTRUCTIONS.md` and then add it to the chat.
+
+For more details, see this documentation on
+[using an instructions file with aider](/docs/instructions.md).
diff --git a/docs/instructions.md b/docs/instructions.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4d5216100
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/instructions.md
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+
+Sometimes you want GPT to be aware of certain coding guidelines,
+like whether to provide type hints, which libraries or packages
+to prefer, etc.
+
+The easiest way to do that with aider is to simply create
+a small markdown file and include it in the chat.
+
+For example, say we want our python code to:
+
+```
+- Prefer httpx over requests for making http requests.
+- Use types everywhere possible.
+```
+
+We would simply create a file like `INSTRUCTIONS.md` with those lines
+and then we can add it to the aider chat, along with the file(s)
+that we want to edit:
+
+<div class="chat-transcript" markdown="1">
+> $ aider INSTRUCTIONS.md useragent.py  
+>  
+> Aider v0.24.2-dev  
+> Added INSTRUCTIONS.md to the chat.  
+> Added useragent.py to the chat.  
+
+#### write a function that uses httpbin to check the user agent on the request. return the ua.  
+
+To fulfill your request, I will:
+
+1. Add an import for `httpx`.
+2. Write a function named `check_user_agent` that makes a GET request to `httpbin.org/user-agent` and returns the user agent string.
+
+Here is the diff for the `useragent.py` file:
+
+```diff
+--- useragent.py
++++ useragent.py
+@@ ... @@
++import httpx
++
++def check_user_agent() -> str:
++    response = httpx.get('https://httpbin.org/user-agent')
++    return response.json()['user-agent']
+```
+
+This function uses `httpx` to make a GET request to `httpbin.org/user-agent`, which returns a JSON response containing the user agent of the HTTP client. The function then extracts the user agent string from the JSON response and returns it.
+
+> Applied edit to useragent.py  
+</div>
+
+GPT correctly used `httpx` and provided type hints.
+See below for the transcript of this same chat *without*
+using `INSTRUCTIONS.md`.
+In this case, GPT used `requests` and skipped types,
+which is perhaps more typical in small python scripts.
+
+<div class="chat-transcript" markdown="1">
+> $ aider useragent.py  
+>  
+> Aider v0.24.2-dev  
+> Added useragent.py to the chat.  
+
+
+#### write a function that uses httpbin to check the user agent on the request. return the ua.  
+
+```diff
+--- /dev/null
++++ useragent.py
+@@ ... @@
++import requests
++
++def check_user_agent():
++    response = requests.get('https://httpbin.org/user-agent')
++    user_agent = response.json().get('user-agent')
++    return user_agent
+```
+
+> Applied edit to useragent.py  
+</div>