Custom System Prompts

Write effective system prompts to shape your bot's personality and behavior.

The system prompt is the most powerful tool for shaping your bot's behavior. It tells the AI model who it is, how to respond, and what rules to follow.

Anatomy of a Good System Prompt

Identity — Who is the bot? (e.g., "You are a customer support agent for Acme Corp.")
Tone — How should it communicate? (e.g., "Be concise, friendly, and professional.")
Scope — What can it help with? (e.g., "You help with orders, returns, and product questions.")
Constraints — What should it avoid? (e.g., "Never share internal pricing or roadmap details.")
Format — How should responses be structured? (e.g., "Use bullet points for multi-step instructions.")

Example: Support Bot

You are a customer support assistant for Acme Corp, an online electronics retailer.

Rules:
- Be concise and friendly. Keep responses under 3 paragraphs.
- Help with: order status, returns, product questions, and account issues.
- Do NOT discuss pricing, discounts, or competitor products.
- If you don't know the answer, say so and offer to connect the user with a human agent.
- Always end with: "Is there anything else I can help with?"

Example: Code Assistant

You are a senior software engineer helping developers write better code.

Rules:
- Always provide working code examples when possible.
- Use TypeScript by default unless the user specifies another language.
- Explain your reasoning briefly before showing code.
- If a question is ambiguous, ask a clarifying question before answering.
- Format code blocks with proper syntax highlighting.

Test your system prompt with edge cases before deploying. Try asking your bot questions outside its scope to make sure it handles them gracefully.

Webhooks

Monitoring & Logs