Architectural Prompting: a normative notebook with Gemini Notebook, the assistant that responds only to the study’s sources

The problem: model memory

When we ask a general assistant whether a building permit is needed to install a shed, the answer comes from what the model has learned during training. We don’t know from which text, nor in which version, and we don’t know if it takes into account the building regulations of the municipality in which we are working, which is often the decisive document.

The result is a smooth and plausible answer, which however does not say which text it is based on. For a technician who has to sign, it’s the most uncomfortable situation: the answer seems right, but to find out if it really is you have to do the search all over again, and at that point the assistant hasn’t saved anything.

The tool: Gemini Notebook

Gemini Notebook is the new name of NotebookLM, the Google tool which has been called this since July 2026 and can be reached both from the website notebooklm.google both from the Gemini app. It works for notebooks: documents (the sources) are loaded into each one and the assistant responds based on those, indicating with small clickable numbers the point from which it took each statement. If the answer is not found in the sources, he usually states it rather than making it up.

This is exactly the behavior we need for regulatory consultation. The notebook becomes a small studio library, made up only of the texts we have chosen, in the version we have downloaded.

The tool alone, however, is not enough: it is the instructions we give it that decide whether we will obtain a generic summary or a rigorous consultation. Here’s the prompt.

The prompt, to copy and paste

Act as a regulatory consultation assistant for an engineering firm.
Please respond solely based on the sources uploaded in this notebook.
Don’t use outside knowledge or your memory.

Rules:

1. For each statement indicate the source and the precise point: act, article, paragraph; for regulations and rules of plan, article and title.
2. If the answer is not found in the sources, write “Not found in the uploaded sources” and indicate which document would be needed to answer. Don’t complete with assumptions.
3. If two sources say different things (for example the state law and the municipal regulation), report them both and point out the conflict. Don’t choose which one prevails.
4. Always distinguish what the source says verbatim from your summary: verbatim quotes go in quotation marks.
5. If the answer depends on data that I have not provided you (urban planning area, intended use, surfaces, heights, date of the intervention), ask them before answering.

Response format:

• A. Short answer, in two or three lines.
• B. References: for each, source, article and textual citation.
• C. Points not covered by sources or to be verified.

Close by remembering that the answer is based only on the documents uploaded, in the version indicated in the name of each file.

Instructions for use

• Create a notebook for each area. One per municipality, if you work in different territories, or one per project. Mixing the regulations of two Municipalities in the same notebook is the quickest way to get wrong answers.
• Load the right sources. The current text of the Consolidated Building Law (Presidential Decree 380/2001) downloaded from Normattiva, the municipal building regulations, the technical standards for implementing the urban plan, the regional laws and regulations that are applied most often.
• Date the files. In the name of each document indicate the date on which you downloaded it (for example “Cesena building regulations, downloaded on 10/15/2026”). The prompt asks the assistant to call it back, so you always know which version it is thinking about.
• Paste the prompt into the notebook’s chat settings, in the section that allows you to customize the assistant’s behavior. This way it applies to all questions, without having to repeat it.
• Always click on the citation numbers. They open the exact passage of the source: it is the check that you have to do, and it takes a few seconds.
• Update the notebook when a rule or regulation changes, replacing the old file instead of tiling it.

A note on data protection: Rules and regulations are public documents and can be uploaded without any problems. The case of customer practices is different: projects, deeds, surveys and reports contain personal data. Before uploading them to an online tool, you must check which account you use it with and under what conditions the supplier processes the data.

Scope

Having an assistant available who answers the firm’s daily regulatory questions by always citing the source, declaring when the source is not there and reporting conflicts between state, regional and municipal regulations, instead of resolving them alone.

Because it is effective

The tool limits sources, the prompt limits behavior. The first prevents the assistant from fishing in his own memory; the second requires him to show the work, to stop when the documents are not enough and to ask for the missing data.

Input example

I have to build an 18m2 shed next to an existing residential building, in a residential area of ​​completion. What building permit is needed and what distances from the borders must I respect?

With the prompt set, the assistant should first ask for the missing data (for example height, materials, possible side closure), then respond by indicating the articles of the Consolidated Law and the building regulations that he found, with the related citations, and finally list what the sources do not say: for example a landscape restriction that is not in the notebook.

In conclusion

A good normative notebook takes away the slowest part of the research and always puts the text in front of you from which to start; the decision, however, remains yours. The result depends more on the method than the tool: choose the sources, tell the assistant how to use them and check where he got each answer from.

Disclaimer: the prompt and the tool described are a support for consulting regulatory sources and do not replace professional verification. The answers must be checked on the official texts by the professional, who remains solely responsible for the assessments and the documents he signs.