System Prompt

The system prompt is a hidden instruction that shapes how the model responds throughout a conversation, e.g. its tone, language, focus, or format. It is not part of your chat messages and is not visible in the conversation.

The Assistant’s system prompt

When you chat with an Assistant, its system prompt is always applied. It defines the Assistant’s intended role and behavior as configured by its creator — for example, to answer only about a specific topic, to adopt a particular writing style, or to use retrieved documents in a certain way.

You can set your own personal system prompt under Settings → General → System Prompt. When set, it is appended to the Assistant’s prompt, giving your answers a personal flavor on top of the Assistant’s behavior.

Use with care

Your personal system prompt applies to all your chats — with every Assistant and in every Space. An instruction that makes sense in one context can produce unexpected or lower-quality results in another, or change an Assistant’s behavior in ways the creator did not intend. Only set a personal system prompt if you have a consistent preference that works across all your use cases.

If you want to tailor chat behavior for a specific purpose or create your own use case, it is recommended to create your own Assistant instead. An Assistant’s system prompt is scoped to that Assistant only and does not affect your other chats.

Without an Assistant

When chatting without an Assistant, your personal system prompt is used if set. If you have not set one, the Space provides a fallback configuration defined by the Space owner.