What is this?
System Instructions is a single text box, and it’s the most important tab in the builder. Write it the way you’d brief a new employee on their first day: short sentences, plain words, clear rules.
[SCREENSHOT: ai-agent-instructions-tab — The Instructions tab with the system instructions textarea and AI Rewrite button]
What can I do here?
- Write free-form System Instructions in the textarea.
- Click AI Rewrite to turn rough notes into a clearer instruction — review the result before saving, it doesn’t save automatically.
How to use it
Answer five questions
A good set of instructions covers these, in this order:
A copyable starting point
What Instructions are for — and what they’re not for
Instructions are where the agent’s judgment lives: when someone counts as an interested lead, what tone to use, what it must never claim. They are not the place to list automation names, IDs, or “use automation X for Y” — that decision is driven by each automation’s own Description instead. See Trigger Automation in Capabilities.
The agent can only follow what you actually write. If you don’t say “never promise a discount,” it might. Be specific about the things that matter to your business — don’t assume common sense fills the gaps.
Troubleshooting / Technical Notes
- It gives wrong or made-up answers. Add the missing fact to Knowledge rather than instructions — instructions shape behavior, Knowledge supplies facts. Add a rule like “Only use the facts in your knowledge.”
- It won’t use a capability or automation you expected. That’s almost never an Instructions problem — check the capability or automation’s own Description first. See Capabilities.
- AI Rewrite produced something you don’t like. It’s a suggestion, not a save — edit or discard it before saving.
