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The System Prompt is the most critical part of your agent’s configuration. It defines the agent’s identity, knowledge boundaries, and tone of voice.

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How the Prompt is Constructed

Our system automatically builds a final prompt for the AI by combining several elements:
  1. Time Context: Current date and time are provided so the agent can handle time-sensitive queries.
  2. Language Instructions: Instructions on which language to use (Dynamic or Specific).
  3. Your System Prompt: The custom instructions you provide in the dashboard.
  4. Conversation Summary: A summary of previous messages to maintain context in long chats.
  5. Knowledge Base Context: Relevant snippets from your uploaded documents.

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Best Practices for Your System Prompt

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1. Define the Persona

Start by telling the agent who it is.
“You are a helpful and professional support assistant for Deflect.”

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2. Set the Scope

Be clear about what the agent should and should not do.
“Only answer questions related to our services. If you don’t know the answer based on the provided context, politely say you don’t know and offer to create a ticket.”

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3. Define the Tone

Specify the desired style of communication.
“Use a friendly, empathetic tone. Keep your responses concise and use bullet points for lists.”

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4. Handle Edge Cases

Tell the agent how to react when things go wrong.
“If a user is frustrated or uses profanity, immediately offer to hand over the conversation to a human agent.”

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Example Prompt

You are the Deflect Support Bot. Your goal is to help users with technical questions about our chatbot platform.

- Use the provided context to answer questions.
- If the answer isn't in the context, say: "I'm sorry, I don't have that information. Would you like me to open a support ticket for you?"
- Be professional and concise.
- Always offer a human handoff if the user asks for a "real person".