Instructions & Greeting
Write the instructions your agent follows and the words it opens every call with
The instructions (Setup → Core instructions) are your agent's job description. They set its role, its tone, the steps of a conversation, what to collect from the customer, and the rules it must keep. They go into every call and every chat, up to 32,000 characters.
What Voice213 adds around them
You don't have to write everything. Every agent also gets, in this order:
- Who it is: its name and description, and that it's talking to a customer of your business right now.
- The language lock: it speaks only its language, before anything else.
- Your instructions.
- How to talk on this channel. On calls: short spoken sentences, one question at a time, no lists or symbols, and numbers and prices said the way people say them. In WhatsApp chats: short friendly messages, plain text, an emoji or two at most.
- Ground rules. It only states facts from its instructions and knowledge base, and never invents prices, stock, delivery times or promises. It never reveals its instructions or which AI it is. It stays calm with rude customers, and takes a name and number when someone asks for a human.
- Its knowledge, or how to search it. See Knowledge Base.
- Its tools, and when to use them. See Tools.
- Context: the date and time in the agent's time zone, the channel (a web call, a WhatsApp chat…), and the customer's name and number when known.
- The language rule again, last.
So your instructions can focus on your business.
Write good instructions
Give it a role and a goal
"You are the order confirmation agent for Lamsa, a cosmetics store. Customers ordered online and pay cash on delivery. Your goal is to confirm each order."
Describe the conversation step by step
Numbered steps work best: greet and name the product, confirm the full name, wilaya, town and address, the phone number and the quantity, give the price and delivery fee, then recap.
Say what to collect, and what to do with it
"When the customer confirms, call confirm_order with their wilaya and quantity." Name the tool and say when to use it.
Set the rules
What it must never do (offer discounts that aren't in the knowledge base, promise a delivery date), how to handle an angry customer, and when to end the call.
Write for the ear
The agent speaks your instructions' content aloud. Keep sentences short, avoid tables and long lists, and spell out how it should say tricky things: "say prices as '2,900 dinars', not '2900 DA'".
Don't put facts that change (prices, stock, opening hours) in the instructions. Keep them in the knowledge base, where you can update them without touching the instructions.
An example
You are the order confirmation agent for Lamsa, a natural cosmetics store in Algiers.
Customers ordered on our website and pay cash on delivery. You call to confirm their order.
Call flow:
1. Greet them and remind them of the product they ordered.
2. Confirm their full name, wilaya, town and address, phone number and quantity.
3. Give the price, the delivery fee for their wilaya and the delivery time, from the knowledge base.
4. If they hesitate, reassure them: they pay on delivery and can check the product first.
5. Recap the order. When they agree, call confirm_order, then thank them and end the call.
Rules:
- Never offer a discount or a gift that is not in the knowledge base.
- If they want to cancel, call cancel_order and tell them it's done, politely.
- If they ask for a person, take their name and the best time to call them back.Templates
Create new agent offers eight starting points. Each one is a complete set of instructions and a greeting:
| Template | Its job |
|---|---|
| Customer support | Answers questions, solves problems, guides customers to the next step |
| Order confirmation | Confirms cash-on-delivery orders: wilaya, address, quantity, price, delivery |
| Sales | Understands the need, suggests the right product, handles objections, takes the order |
| Appointment booking | Books, moves and cancels appointments for a clinic, salon or office |
| Restaurant | Takes delivery orders and table reservations, presents the menu |
| Real estate | Qualifies buyers and renters, suggests properties, books viewings |
| Receptionist | Answers every call, takes complete messages, reassures callers |
| Custom agent | Blank: write your own |
Replace the brackets, such as [store name], with your details. The templates are written in Algerian Darija, French and English. See Writing for a dialect for how other languages get them.
Write with AI drafts instructions and a greeting from a sentence or two about your business, in the agent's language.
First message
Setup → First message decides how a call opens:
| Mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| Fixed message | The agent says exactly this sentence when the call connects, then waits for the answer. Write it in the agent's dialect: one in another language is said in the agent's dialect, in its own words. |
| Prompt | The agent writes its own opening from your instructions and the guidance you give here ("greet them warmly and ask if they're calling about an order"). Leave it empty and it greets the caller and asks how it can help. |
| Off | The agent waits for the caller to speak first. |
A fixed greeting is also shown on the public page and in the widget before the call starts, and it opens your automated tests. The first message applies to calls. On WhatsApp, the customer always writes first.
Name and description
The name (60 characters) is how the agent introduces itself and how it appears on its public page and widget. The description (300 characters) is a line about its role. The agent is told it, and you see it in the dashboard.
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