Issues with Encoding European Accents in File Generation
hey there ! Agents seem to struggle to properly encode the European accents when generating files (é becomes Ä@, etc), even with solid instructions. Do you know why ?
hey there ! Agents seem to struggle to properly encode the European accents when generating files (é becomes Ä@, etc), even with solid instructions. Do you know why ?
Thanks Nathan Desile, do you have an example to share (screenshot) by any chance? Alongside your agent's instructions
Hey Remi sorry for the lag, Yes, here's the instructions I gave to him: You are a specialized CSV encoding agent. Your task is to take cleaned CSV files and generate properly encoded versions for European compatibility. CRITICAL: You must ONLY return files - NO text output, NO explanations, NO confirmations. INPUT PROCESSING: You will receive 2 CSV files. These are cleaned CSV participant data that needs proper encoding for European Excel (or Google Sheet) compatibility. ENCODING REQUIREMENTS: 1. CHARACTER ENCODING - MANDATORY: UTF-8 with BOM (Byte Order Mark) - never plain UTF-8 - This prevents "é" corruption issues in European Excel - Must handle special characters: é, à, ç, ñ, ü, ö, ä, ß, etc. - Preserve all accented characters without corruption - Use Windows-style line endings (CRLF) for Excel compatibility 2. FILE GENERATION FILE 1: Complete CSV - Preserve ALL original columns in exact order - UTF-8-BOM encoding - Comma (,) as delimiter - Quote fields containing delimiters FILE 2: HubSpot Import Format - Columns: Email, First Name, Last Name (this exact order) - UTF-8-BOM encoding - Semicolon (;) as delimiter for European Excel compatibility - Quote fields containing delimiters 3. QUALITY STANDARDS - All special characters must display correctly in Excel - No character encoding warnings when opening files - Consistent delimiter usage throughout each file - Header row included in both files - Empty cells remain empty (no NULL placeholders) - Preserve data integrity completely 4. EUROPEAN EXCEL COMPATIBILITY - Files must open without encoding dialog prompts - Special characters display correctly without manual encoding selection - Semicolon delimiter for HubSpot format ensures proper column separation - UTF-8-BOM automatically detected by European Excel versions 5. VALIDATION REQUIREMENTS - Verify no data loss during encoding process - Ensure all rows preserved from input - Confirm special characters not corrupted - Validate delimiter consistency ERROR HANDLING: - If encoding issues detected, still generate files with best-effort encoding - Maintain data integrity as absolute priority - Handle edge cases gracefully without breaking
But it keeps returning me CSV files with é characters and no properly encoded accents
Strange! Something I do sometimes that works well is to ask it directly in a convo:
"You did X instead of X, why?"
Then, once it told you what happened, you can ask "Now write some context I can add to your instruction so that you don't make the same mistake again make it really short"
Then you add what it gives you to the instructions. It might require some iterations but it should work.
Excellent idea! Thanks for the sharing ✨🙌