Training Guide

Shape your bot's personality and behavior through the Instructions screen (Manual or Guided mode).

How Bot Training Works

Training in AxiaChat AI has two parts:

Instructions — Tell the bot how to behave: personality, tone, rules, and guidelines.
Context (Knowledge Base) — Give the bot the information it needs to answer accurately. This is covered in Training: Context & RAG.

This page focuses on Instructions. For context/knowledge base setup, see the next page.

Accessing the Instructions Page

Go to AxiaChat AI → Training in your WordPress admin.
If you have multiple bots, select the one you want to train using the bot selector at the top.
Open the Instructions sub-page: wp-admin/admin.php?page=aichat-training-instructions.

Two Modes: Manual and Guided

The Instructions page has a mode toggle with Manual and Guided modes. Both save to the same bot instructions field.

Manual Mode

Write/edit the full Instructions / System Prompt directly in a textarea.
Optionally load a predefined template from the template list.
Use Save Instructions to persist changes.

Guided Mode

Guided mode is a structured wizard that generates instructions and then saves them (overwriting current manual text):

Assistant type (card selection)
Tone (pill selection)
Response length (slider: Minimal, Short, Medium, Detailed)
Chat Guidelines (editable list with suggested + universal options)

A live preview is shown before applying. Clicking Apply & Save Instructions stores the generated prompt and syncs it to manual mode.

Writing Good Instructions

Instructions are the system prompt that shapes every response your bot gives. Think of them as the bot's "employee handbook."

What to include

Identity — Who is the bot? ("You are Aria, the customer support assistant for Acme Corp.")
Tone & style — Formal? Casual? Friendly? Technical? ("Respond in a warm, professional tone. Use simple language.")
Scope — What topics should it cover? ("You assist with product questions, shipping info, and returns.")
Boundaries — What should it not do? ("Never discuss competitors. Never make up information.")
Language — What language(s) should it use? ("Always respond in English unless the user writes in Spanish.")
Format preferences — How to structure answers? ("Use bullet points for lists. Keep answers under 3 paragraphs.")

Example Instructions

You are Aria, the AI assistant for Acme Store.

Tone: friendly, professional, and helpful.
Language: respond in the same language the user writes in.

Your job:
- Answer questions about our products, pricing, and shipping
- Help users find the right product for their needs
- Capture leads when users show purchase interest

Rules:
- Never invent information — only use the provided context
- If you don't know something, say so honestly
- Keep responses concise (2-3 paragraphs max)
- When quoting prices, always mention they may vary

Guidelines in Guided Mode

Guidelines are managed inside Guided mode (step 4) as editable lines. You can add, edit, and remove them before saving.

What guideline options include

The "Add Guideline" selector provides:

Type-specific suggestions (based on selected assistant type)
Universal guidelines (safety, language, escalation, lead capture, notifications, etc.)
Blank custom line so you can write your own rule from scratch

💡 Guided mode warning Applying guided mode overwrites current manual instructions entirely. If needed, copy your current prompt before applying.

Training Tips

Be specific, not vague

❌ Vague	✅ Specific
"Be helpful"	"When asked about shipping, provide estimated delivery times and tracking info"
"Don't be rude"	"Always thank the user for their question. If you can't help, apologize and suggest alternatives"
"Know our products"	"Use the product information from the context. Include price and availability when relevant"

Test and iterate

Write initial instructions
Test with common questions your customers ask
Review conversations in AxiaChat AI → Logs
Adjust instructions based on what needs improvement
Repeat

Use the preview mode

Test your bot without affecting live visitors:

https://yoursite.com/?aichat_preview=1&bot=your-bot-slug

Per-Bot Instructions

Each bot has its own separate instructions. This is powerful when you have multiple bots:

Sales bot — Proactive, suggests products, captures leads
Support bot — Patient, thorough, escalates to human when needed
FAQ bot — Concise, links to relevant pages, stays strictly on topic

What Happens Behind the Scenes

When a user sends a message, the plugin builds the AI prompt in this order:

Security & Privacy Policy — Always first (hardcoded, prevents prompt injection)
Your instructions — The system prompt you wrote + enabled guidelines
Context — Relevant knowledge base chunks retrieved via RAG (see Context & RAG)
Conversation history — Previous messages in the session
User's message — The actual question

📘 Security-first design The security policy is always injected first and cannot be overridden by user messages. This protects against prompt injection attacks where users try to make the bot reveal its instructions or behave inappropriately.

Save Behavior Summary

Manual mode saves textarea content as bot instructions.
Guided mode builds a prompt from type + tone + length + guidelines, then saves it.
After guided save, the generated prompt is also placed into the manual textarea.

Interactive Training Guide

For a more visual, step-by-step walkthrough with examples and interactive elements, check out our dedicated Interactive Training Guide.