diff --git a/.github/workflows/engineer-bot.yaml b/.github/workflows/engineer-bot.yaml
index 7a7bab5b..4d37c07d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/engineer-bot.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/engineer-bot.yaml
@@ -212,7 +212,15 @@ jobs:
           MODEL_ENDPOINT:   https://${{ secrets.DATABRICKS_HOST }}/serving-endpoints/databricks-claude-opus-4-8/invocations
           REPO_RULES_FILES: csharp/CLAUDE.md,rust/CLAUDE.md   # adbc keeps conventions per-language (no root CLAUDE.md)
           DATABRICKS_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.DATABRICKS_TOKEN }}
-        run: python -m databricks_bot_engine.engineer_bot.run --phase author --bot .bot
+        # engine #89 externalized the prompts: the author phase now REQUIRES both
+        # --system-prompt (argparse) and --user-prompt (enforced in run.py main();
+        # rendered as a template, filling {{issue_*}} from author.env_tokens in
+        # .bot/config.yaml). Both live in .bot/prompts/engineer/. --flow is omitted
+        # deliberately: .bot/config.yaml sets `flow: bug-fix` as the default.
+        run: |
+          python -m databricks_bot_engine.engineer_bot.run --phase author --bot .bot \
+          --system-prompt .bot/prompts/engineer/system.md \
+          --user-prompt .bot/prompts/engineer/user.md
 
       - name: Open fix PR
         id: publish