How to Configure Custom Instructions and Response Style for AI Agents

This guide explains how to use the Custom Instructions and Response Style settings to tailor your agent's responses. By combining these options, you can control the tone, formatting, verbosity, and style of the agent's communication so it aligns with your brand guidelines and use case.

When to Use This

Use these features when you need to refine the AI agent's behavior beyond standard defaults. This is ideal for:

• Enforcing specific brand voice or tone guidelines.
• Restricting the use of certain words or phrases.
• Controlling how long or detailed answers should be.
• Formatting responses in a specific way (e.g., using bullet points or specific sentence structures).

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Part 1: Adjusting the Agent's Response Style

The Response Style setting controls how verbose and detailed the agent's answers are, as well as the general level of context it provides.

Available Response Styles

1. Concise For short, direct responses with only the key information.
2. Normal For balanced responses with adequate detail and context. This is generally recommended as the default.
3. Detailed For comprehensive responses with in-depth explanations, examples, and supporting information.

Steps to Change Response Style

1. On the agent configuration page, scroll down to find the Agent Settings section and click to expand it.
2. Within Agent Settings, locate the Response Style options.
3. Choose from the available styles:
   • Concise
   • Normal
   • Detailed
4. After selecting the desired style, click Save (or Save Changes) to apply it.

Once saved, the agent will automatically adjust the length and level of detail of its answers based on the selected style.

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Part 2: Configuring Custom Instructions

The Custom Instructions field lets you add more granular rules about how the agent should respond, beyond the basic Response Style.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Navigate to the Agent Settings section in your dashboard.
2. Locate the Custom Instructions field.
3. Type your specific requirements into the text box. The box allows for free-text entry and can extend to accommodate longer instructions.
4. You can define various rules, such as:
   • Tone: Specify if the agent should be formal, casual, empathetic, etc.
   • Vocabulary: List words to exclude or include.
   • Structure: Instruct the agent to start or end sentences in a particular way.
   • Formatting: Request the use of dot points versus free-flowing paragraphs.
5. Once entered, the system will apply these custom instructions to adjust the agent's responses globally.

Examples of Custom Instructions

• "Always answer using bullet points for clarity."
• "Do not use technical jargon; keep language simple."
• "Ensure all responses adhere to our friendly and professional brand tone."
• "Never start a sentence with 'Unfortunately'."

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Summary

To tailor how your Brainfish agent communicates:

1. Use Response Style (Concise, Normal, Detailed) in Agent Settings to control the length and depth of answers.
2. Use Custom Instructions to fine-tune tone, vocabulary, structure, and formatting.
3. Always remember to save your changes so they take effect.

Together, these controls let you align the agent's behavior closely with your brand and the expectations of your customers.