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Guidelines define the goals, communication style, and boundaries that should remain consistent across an agent’s conversations. They are available to every flow that has Include Guidelines turned on. Use Guidelines for shared behavior. Put instructions that apply only to one flow or one part of a call in that flow or block instead.

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Choose where information belongs

Avoid copying the same instruction into several places. Conflicting instructions make the agent’s behavior less predictable and make future updates harder to maintain.

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Choose guideline sections

Add only the sections your agent needs: Prefer the most specific section. For example, place a prohibited promise in Never Do, not in a broad Custom section. Keep detailed policies, service information, and frequently changing facts in the Knowledge Base rather than repeating them in General Info.

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Configure Response Style

The Response Style section combines written guidance with two agent settings:
  • Personality sets the general conversational style, such as Direct, Formal, Persuasive, or Friendly.
  • Humanize speech allows the agent to use vocal fillers such as “hmm” and “umm.”
Use the written section for details the preset does not express, such as how concise answers should be or how the agent should respond to an upset caller.

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Write effective guidelines

  • State what the agent should do in direct, specific language.
  • Define a clear fallback when the agent cannot complete a request.
  • Use Never Do for genuine hard boundaries, not general preferences.
  • Keep shared guidance independent of a particular flow path or block.
  • Remove instructions that duplicate or contradict another section.
Example: If the caller asks for a service you cannot confirm, explain that a team member can follow up and offer to collect their contact details. Do not invent availability or pricing.

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Add and edit sections

Open Agent Design, then select Guidelines.
  1. Select Add Section and choose a section type.
  2. Select the section in the sidebar and enter its guidance.
  3. Add a Custom section only when no predefined section fits; give it a specific name.
Changes save automatically after you stop editing. Wait for the status to show Saved before leaving the editor. You can delete any configured section; only Custom sections can be renamed. To get help with a section, select it and choose Ask AI. Ask AI can inspect or improve the selected section, so review the result alongside the other Guidelines.

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Use Guidelines in a flow

New flows include the agent’s Guidelines by default. To review the setting for a flow, open Flow Settings and find Include Guidelines. Turn the setting off only when that flow should operate without the shared guidance. If a flow needs additional instructions, keep Guidelines enabled and add the flow-specific context in Flow Settings or the relevant blocks.

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Test the behavior

Before testing, confirm that Include Guidelines is turned on for the flow. Then:
  1. Use Web Chat to check the agent’s goal, boundaries, objection handling, and out-of-scope response across the main conversation and important alternate paths.
  2. Use Web Call to hear its tone, pacing, and Response Style.
  3. Resolve any conflict between Guidelines, Flow Settings, and block instructions before relying on the updated behavior.

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Troubleshooting

Confirm that Include Guidelines is turned on for the flow. Then check for conflicting or more specific instructions in Flow Settings and the active block. Rewrite broad guidance as a direct rule in the most appropriate section.
Review all configured sections for duplicated or conflicting instructions. Keep one source for each rule, make the desired behavior specific, and test more than one conversation path.
Last modified on July 17, 2026