Prompt, first message and AI model
Prompt, first message and AI model
Write the agent's instructions, what it says first, and pick the AI model it runs on.
Open the agent and go to Prompt. This is where the agent's behaviour starts.
How the agent decides what to say
- Prompt (most agents): the AI follows your instructions and calls your webhooks when it needs information.
- Procedures: fixed rules. When a message matches a procedure, its steps run in order. See Procedures.
Write the instructions
- Say who the agent is: “You are Priya, the front desk of ShopX, an online home-goods store.”
- Say what it helps with: order status, delivery dates, returns.
- Say how: ask for the order number first, confirm before cancelling, keep replies short on calls.
- Say what it must never do: promise refunds, discuss other companies, give medical advice.
- If it should use webhooks in a certain order, name them: “Look up the order with Order status before answering.”
The cost meter under the instructions shows how many tokens each reply sends and what a reply and a call cost. Move long FAQs to Knowledge to keep replies cheap, or try Shorten with AI; the shorter version is only shown to you, never saved by itself.
Fixed lines
- First message: what the agent says when the conversation starts, for example “Hello, this is Priya from ShopX. How can I help you today?” Leave it empty to wait for the caller.
- While looking something up: said on calls when a reply takes more than a couple of seconds, for example while a webhook runs.
AI model
- Our models (Ollama, Claude, Gemini and OpenAI on our keys): each reply uses credits for the tokens it reads and writes. Small models answer fastest and cost least; large ones are the most capable. For phone calls, a fast model keeps replies quick.
- Your own key or custom LLM: add the key under Integrations, then pick it here. Your provider bills you; we charge nothing for the model.
Backup model: if the main model fails or takes too long, the backup answers instead and stays on for the rest of that reply, so the caller doesn't hear an error. Pick one of our models or your own key. Our models use credits at the backup's own price, only when it answers. It isn't used if its key was removed or the account has no credits for it, and it can't take over when the main model is one of ours and credits have run out.
Click Save, then try it on the Test tab.