Persona and instructions
Control the agent's identity, goals, tone, boundaries, and escalation behavior.
Control the agent's identity, goals, tone, boundaries, and escalation behavior.
Separate identity from knowledge#
There is no separate Persona page. Write the agent's instructions on the Agent page's Overview tab, in Instructions; they save automatically.
Persona explains who the agent is and how it behaves. Knowledge supplies facts. Put “Speak as the Acme support assistant” in persona; put the current warranty period in a knowledge source.
Instruction order#
Write instructions in this order:
- Identity and role
- Primary visitor goal
- Tone and response length
- Required actions and questions
- Prohibited claims and sensitive topics
- Escalation and lead-capture conditions
Boundaries#
Tell the agent when to say it does not know, when to cite or qualify an answer, and when to offer human help. Never instruct it to hide uncertainty or invent missing data.
Test changes#
Persona changes can affect every channel. Re-test common questions, refusals, lead capture, and supported languages before publishing a major change.