---
title: "Agent Instructions"
description: "Write instructions that shape how your agent behaves, what it focuses on, and how it responds to your customers."
---

**Instructions** tell your agent who it is and how to behave: its role, its tone, what to focus on, and what to avoid. Your agent follows them in every conversation, on every channel.

## Where to edit instructions

- In **Settings**, in the **AI** section, under **Base instructions**.
- In the **Playground**, under **System prompt**, where you can test changes right away.

Instructions can be up to 20,000 characters.

## Start from a template

Select **Use a template** to start from an example, then edit it to fit your business:

| Template | Good for |
| --- | --- |
| **Base** | A support agent focused on your product and its features. |
| **General Assistant** | A friendly all-round assistant that helps with any request. |
| **Customer Support** | Answering customer questions, strictly about your business. |
| **Sales Agent** | Answering questions from potential customers. |

The templates keep the agent focused on your knowledge: it stays in its role, politely redirects off-topic questions, and doesn't mention that it was trained on data.

## Writing good instructions

Instructions work best when they're specific. A useful structure:

```md
### Role
You are Ava, the support assistant for Acme, an online furniture store.
You help customers with orders, delivery, returns, and product questions.

### Tone
Friendly and concise. Use short paragraphs. Use the customer's name if you know it.

### Rules
- Only answer questions about Acme and its products.
- If you don't know the answer, say so and offer to connect the customer with our team.
- Never promise discounts or delivery dates that aren't in your knowledge.
- For order changes, ask for the order number first.
```

**Do**

- Describe your business and your customers.
- Say what to do when the agent doesn't know the answer.
- Give examples of the tone you want.
- Test changes in the [Playground](/docs/agents/playground) before relying on them.

**Avoid**

- Pasting facts such as prices or policies into instructions. Put them in [knowledge](/docs/knowledge) instead, so they're easier to update.
- Contradictory rules, such as "be brief" and "explain everything in detail".

## Channel-specific instructions

Each deployment channel can add its own **additional instructions** on top of the main ones, for example to keep WhatsApp replies short. See [Deployments](/docs/deployments).