diff --git a/src/env.ts b/src/env.ts
index a6ec2f2..ae07dce 100644
--- a/src/env.ts
+++ b/src/env.ts
@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@ export const {
   OPENAI_API_KEY,
   CHATGPT_CONTEXT,
   CHATGPT_TIMEOUT,
-  CHATGPT_MODEL
+  CHATGPT_MODEL,
+  CHATGPT_PROMPT_PREFIX,
 } = parseEnv(process.env, {
   DATA_PATH:                   { schema: z.string().default("./storage"),          description: "Set to /storage/ if using docker, ./storage if running without" },
   KEYV_BACKEND:                { schema: z.enum(["file", "other"]).default("file"),description: "Set the Keyv backend to 'file' or 'other' if other set KEYV_URL" },
@@ -56,5 +57,6 @@ export const {
   OPENAI_API_KEY:              { schema: z.string().default(""),                   description: "Set to the API key from https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys"},
   CHATGPT_TIMEOUT:             { schema: z.number().default(2 * 60 * 1000),        description: "Set number of milliseconds to wait for ChatGPT responses" },
   CHATGPT_CONTEXT:             { schema: z.enum(["thread", "room", "both"]).default("thread"), description: "Set the ChatGPT conversation context to 'thread', 'room' or 'both'" },
-  CHATGPT_MODEL:               { schema: z.string().default("text-chat-davinci-002-20221122"), description: "The model for the ChatGPT-API to use" }
+  CHATGPT_MODEL:               { schema: z.string().default("text-chat-davinci-002-20221122"), description: "The model for the ChatGPT-API to use" },
+  CHATGPT_PROMPT_PREFIX:       { schema: z.string().default('Instructions:\nYou are ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI.'), description: "Instructions to feed to ChatGPT on startup"},
 });
diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index 957e132..cdb7443 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -8,10 +8,10 @@ import {
 } from "matrix-bot-sdk";
 
 import * as path from "path";
-import { DATA_PATH, KEYV_URL, OPENAI_API_KEY, MATRIX_HOMESERVER_URL, MATRIX_ACCESS_TOKEN, MATRIX_AUTOJOIN, MATRIX_BOT_PASSWORD, MATRIX_BOT_USERNAME, MATRIX_ENCRYPTION, MATRIX_THREADS, CHATGPT_CONTEXT, CHATGPT_MODEL, KEYV_BOT_STORAGE, KEYV_BACKEND } from './env.js'
+import { DATA_PATH, KEYV_URL, OPENAI_API_KEY, MATRIX_HOMESERVER_URL, MATRIX_ACCESS_TOKEN, MATRIX_AUTOJOIN, MATRIX_BOT_PASSWORD, MATRIX_BOT_USERNAME, MATRIX_ENCRYPTION, MATRIX_THREADS, CHATGPT_CONTEXT, CHATGPT_MODEL, KEYV_BOT_STORAGE, KEYV_BACKEND, CHATGPT_PROMPT_PREFIX } from './env.js'
 import CommandHandler from "./handlers.js"
 import { KeyvStorageProvider } from './storage.js'
-import { parseMatrixUsernamePretty } from './utils.js';
+import { parseMatrixUsernamePretty, wrapPrompt } from './utils.js';
 
 LogService.setLogger(new RichConsoleLogger());
 // LogService.setLevel(LogLevel.DEBUG);  // Shows the Matrix sync loop details - not needed most of the time
@@ -51,13 +51,7 @@ async function main() {
     modelOptions: {
       model: CHATGPT_MODEL,  // The model is set to text-chat-davinci-002-20221122 by default
     },
-    // (Optional) Set custom instructions instead of "You are ChatGPT...".
-    // promptPrefix: 'You are Bob, a cowboy in Western times...',
-    // (Optional) Set a custom name for the user
-    // userLabel: 'User',
-    // (Optional) Set a custom name for ChatGPT
-    // chatGptLabel: 'ChatGPT',
-    // (Optional) Set to true to enable `console.debug()` logging
+    promptPrefix: wrapPrompt(CHATGPT_PROMPT_PREFIX),
     debug: false,
   };
   const cacheOptions = {  // Options for the Keyv cache, see https://www.npmjs.com/package/keyv
@@ -87,6 +81,7 @@ async function main() {
   await commands.start();
 
   LogService.info("index", `Starting bot using ChatGPT model: ${CHATGPT_MODEL}`);
+  LogService.info("index", `Using promptPrefix: ${wrapPrompt(CHATGPT_PROMPT_PREFIX)}`)
   await client.start()
   LogService.info("index", "Bot started!");
 }
diff --git a/src/utils.ts b/src/utils.ts
index 9bd4eed..b6e316c 100644
--- a/src/utils.ts
+++ b/src/utils.ts
@@ -82,3 +82,8 @@ export async function sendChatGPTMessage(chatgpt: ChatGPTClient, question: strin
     await chatgpt.sendMessage(question, { conversationId: storedConversation.conversationId, parentMessageId: storedConversation.messageId }) :
     await chatgpt.sendMessage(question);
 }
+
+export function wrapPrompt(wrapped: string) {
+  const currentDateString = new Date().toLocaleDateString('en-us', { year: 'numeric', month: 'long', day: 'numeric' },);
+  return `<|im_sep|>${wrapped}\nCurrent date: ${currentDateString}<|im_sep|>\n\n`
+}