Custom system prompts
ShopGuide lets you add custom instructions to your AI assistant from the AI Behavior section of Settings. It's important to understand exactly what this does, because it's more limited than "custom system prompt" might suggest.
What it actually is
The AI's real system prompt is built automatically by ShopGuide from about fifteen fixed sections — identity, available tools, response rules, language handling, store context, and so on. Merchants don't see or edit these sections directly.
What you can edit is a single free-text field. Whatever you type there is appended to the end of the built prompt, under the heading "Additional instructions from the shop owner." It applies both in the main chat flow and when the intent router builds a specialized prompt for a specific type of question.
In practice, this means you can add things like:
- Brand tone guidance ("always sign off with our tagline")
- Store-specific facts the AI should mention ("we're closed for inventory the last week of each month")
- Priorities ("always mention our loyalty program when discussing pricing")
What it isn't
This field does not give you control over the AI's role definition, its tool access, or its language behavior — those are fixed by the app. It's not a full prompt override: your text is added on top of the built-in instructions, not a replacement for them. There's no template/variable system, no conditional logic based on page or customer type, and no separate configuration for escalation triggers — the field is a single block of plain text.
Practical guidance
Keep it short and unambiguous. Because it's appended after the app's own rules (about tool usage, honesty about inventory/pricing, and language), instructions that conflict with those built-in rules may be ignored or produce inconsistent behavior. Treat it as a supplement — extra context and tone guidance — rather than a way to redefine how the assistant works.