Two agents can have the same sources, the same model, and the same integrations - and behave completely differently. The instructions are why.

It is Friday afternoon. A customer opens the chat frustrated - they have been waiting on a resolution all week. Your agent reads the situation, acknowledges the wait, and responds with exactly the right tone before working toward a solution. The customer feels heard. The conversation moves forward. No human had to intervene.

That level of behaviour comes from Custom Instructions. They are what tell your agent how to sound, how to handle difficult moments, and what to prioritise in any given situation. Two agents with identical sources can behave completely differently based on their instructions alone. This article shows you exactly what to include so yours sounds like your best support rep - not a generic chatbot that happens to know your product.

In this article, you'll learn:

• What Custom Instructions are and how they work
• What to include in your instructions
• How to structure them clearly
• Real examples of good and poor instructions

What Are Custom Instructions?

Custom Instructions are a block of text you write that tells your agent:

• Who it is and what company it represents
• What tone and personality to use
• What it should and shouldn't do
• How to handle specific situations (escalations, sensitive topics, unanswered questions)

Outlearn pre-fills a starting set of instructions during onboarding based on your domain - but these are a starting point, not a final version. You should always review and personalize them.

Your instructions are not visible to users. They work in the background, shaping every response your agent gives.

What to Include

A strong set of instructions covers four things:

1. Who Your Agent Is

Tell the agent what company it represents, what the company does, and what its role is.

✅ Good: "You are the support assistant for Helpjuice, a knowledge base platform that helps companies create and manage self-service content. Your role is to help customers with product questions, troubleshooting, and account management."

❌ Poor: "You are a helpful assistant."

The poor version gives the agent nothing to work with. It has no idea what company it's representing or what kinds of questions it should be able to answer.

2. Tone and Personality

Define how your agent should sound. Match it to your brand.

✅ Good: "Be warm, clear, and professional. Avoid technical jargon unless the user is clearly technical. Keep responses concise - aim for 2–3 short paragraphs maximum unless the question requires more detail."

❌ Poor: "Be friendly."

"Be friendly" is too vague. Different people have very different ideas of what friendly means. The more specific you are, the more consistent your agent will be.

3. What It Should and Shouldn't Do

Set boundaries. Tell the agent what topics are in scope and what to do when something is out of scope.

✅ Good: "Only answer questions related to Helpjuice products and features. If a user asks about competitor products, politely let them know you can only help with Helpjuice. If a user asks a question you don't have an answer to, say so honestly and offer to connect them with the support team."

❌ Poor: (no guidance at all)

Without this, your agent will try to answer everything - including questions it shouldn't. Setting clear boundaries prevents awkward or incorrect responses.

4. How to Handle Specific Situations

Think about the edge cases your support team deals with regularly, and give the agent explicit instructions for them.

✅ Good:

• "If a user reports a billing issue, collect their account email and tell them the billing team will follow up within 1 business day."
• "If a user is frustrated or upset, acknowledge their frustration first before trying to help. Use phrases like 'I understand this is frustrating' or 'I'm sorry you're experiencing this.'"
• "If a user asks to speak with a human, don't try to talk them out of it - immediately trigger a handoff."

These specific instructions make a big difference in the moments that matter most to your customers.

How to Structure Your Instructions

Long, unformatted instructions are hard for the agent to parse consistently. Use Markdown formatting to organize them clearly.

Recommended structure:

**Company:** [Your company name]
**Description:** [One sentence about what your company does]

**Your Role:**
[What the agent is responsible for]

**Tone:**
[How the agent should sound]

**What You Can Help With:**
- [Topic 1]
- [Topic 2]
- [Topic 3]

**What You Cannot Help With:**
- [Out-of-scope topic]
- [Out-of-scope topic]

**Critical Situations:**
- [Situation]: [How to handle it]
- [Situation]: [How to handle it]

A Full Example

Here's what a well-written set of instructions looks like in practice:

**Company:** Helpjuice
**Description:** Helpjuice is a knowledge base platform that helps companies 
build and manage self-service help content for their customers and teams.

**Your Role:**
You are the Helpjuice support assistant. You help customers with product 
questions, feature guidance, account issues, and troubleshooting. You do not 
handle billing disputes or enterprise contract questions — escalate those 
immediately.

**Tone:**
Warm, clear, and professional. Avoid jargon. Keep responses brief and 
scannable. Use bullet points when listing steps or options.

**What You Can Help With:**
- How to use Helpjuice features
- Setting up and managing a knowledge base
- Troubleshooting common issues
- Connecting integrations
- Account and user management

**What You Cannot Help With:**
- Competitor product comparisons — politely redirect
- Legal or compliance questions — escalate to a human
- Custom development requests — direct to sales

**Critical Situations:**
- Billing issues: Collect the user's account email and let them know the 
  billing team will follow up within 1 business day.
- Frustrated users: Acknowledge their frustration before helping. Don't 
  skip straight to the solution.
- User asks for a human: Don't argue — trigger a handoff immediately.
- Question you can't answer: Say so honestly. Don't guess or make things up.

Updating Your Instructions

Your instructions aren't set-and-forget. You should revisit them regularly - especially after:

• A product update or new feature launch
• Noticing a pattern of incorrect or off-brand responses
• Reviewing the Content Gaps section in Analytics, which shows questions your agent struggled with

To update your instructions:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Edit the Custom Instructions field.
3. Click Save Changes.

Best Practices

• Be specific - vague instructions produce inconsistent results. The more precise you are, the more predictable your agent will be.
• Always include a "when you don't know" instruction - without one, your agent may guess rather than admit uncertainty.
• Test your instructions after every significant change using the Preview panel before they affect real users.
• Read your instructions out loud. If a sentence sounds unnatural or confusing to you, it will be confusing to your agent too.
• Shorter is not always better - a thorough, well-structured set of instructions consistently outperforms a brief one.