AI agent instructions

01.1What are agent instructions?

AI agent instructions are, in Kolio, the system prompt of the language model: rules about the role, tone, permitted actions and handover to your team that apply in every conversation.

You edit the instructions in AI agents → Agent instructions (permission nastavitve). When you open the page for the first time, the field contains Kolio's default text, which already covers language, answer length on the phone, tool usage and where the agent takes its answers from. You can extend the default text or replace it with your own.

Every save with Save new version creates a new version; the newest one is active and marked active. Older versions stay in Version history (the last 10 are shown) together with the note and the email of the person who saved them. The text must be at least 20 characters long, otherwise the app rejects it with the message that the instructions are too short.

What Kolio adds to your text

Before every conversation Kolio inserts three live values into the instructions. Placeholders let you decide where they go:

01.2How do you write good instructions?

Good AI agent instructions have five parts: who the agent is and how it speaks, what it may and may not do, which questions it asks, when and how it hands over to your team, and a clear boundary with the knowledge base. Each part is a few bullet points in plain language; the agent reads the instructions as rules, not as marketing copy.

01.3Sample instructions: the demo company Norevia

The sample below is the abridged set of instructions of the demo company Norevia Ltd that Kolio uses on its product pages. It contains all five parts: role and tone, permitted actions, inquiry questions, handover to your team and the boundary with the knowledge base.

You are Lina, the agent of Norevia Ltd (business consulting and sales). You speak English, politely and concisely. You introduce yourself as "Norevia, this is Lina".

WHAT YOU DO
– You answer questions about services, prices, how the engagement works, the team, location and opening hours — ONLY from the knowledge base. If you don't have the data, say so and offer to pass the question to the team.
– You book, move and cancel appointments in the calendar. Always check free slots before offering them; offer at most two.
– You take inquiries: ask (1) what it is about, (2) company size, (3) preferred timeframe, (4) name, company, email and phone. Then create a task for Thomas Reed with a summary.

WHAT YOU DON'T DO
– You don't prepare quotes and don't promise package prices, discounts or implementation deadlines — the sales team prepares those.
– You don't guess. What is not in the knowledge base, you don't know.

Today's date is {{DANASNJI_DATUM}}.

SERVICE LIST:
{{STORITVE}}

KNOWLEDGE BASE:
{{BAZA_ZNANJA}}

Tool names are optional in the instructions. Kolio's default text mentions them (for example poisci_proste_termine or ustvari_nalogo) because that pins down exactly when the agent uses which tool; in your own instructions you can express the same rule descriptively ("check free slots in the calendar before offering an appointment").

01.4What can the agent do and what can't it?

The agent in Kolio can only perform actions for which it has a tool; it does not issue quotes because no such tool exists. The tools are shared across all channels and operate on your data in Kolio — the calendar, services, CRM contacts and tasks.

What the agent cannot do

• It does not issue quotes or set prices — there is no tool for that; it records a quote request as a task for your sales team.
• It does not transfer the call to a person on your team. Call transfer was removed from Kolio; handover happens exclusively through a task in the CRM.
• It does not confirm an appointment when a tool returns an error: it confirms only a result that starts with "Uspešno:" (success); otherwise it explains the problem and creates a task.
• It does not read attachment contents in website chat — it sees only the file name, type and size, confirms receipt and leaves the review to your team.
• It does not answer about the offering when credits are used up: in limited mode it only takes a message (name, contact, question) and records it as a task; only ustvari_nalogo and ustvari_kontakt are available. See Usage and billing.

01.5How does the agent hand a conversation to your team?

In Kolio, handover to your team means a task in the CRM: with the ustvari_nalogo tool the agent writes a title and a description with context (name, phone, the customer's request), and the task appears in Tasks with the conversation as its source. The agent tells the customer that the team will take care of it.

In the instructions you define three things: when (a question the knowledge base cannot answer, a complaint, a callback, a request for a quote or a special arrangement), what goes into the description (summary, contact, agreed next step) and to whom (the name of the person on your team, if you want it recorded in the task). Your team can then assign, comment on and close the task — see CRM and tasks.

01.6What is the difference between instructions and the knowledge base?

Instructions are rules, the knowledge base is facts. Instructions define the agent's behaviour and change rarely; the knowledge base contains data about your company that changes often and that Kolio can build from your website or documents.

Details about sources, building and versions are in the Knowledge base chapter.

01.7Do the instructions apply to all channels?

One version of the instructions applies to all Kolio channels: phone, website chat and the AI email reply use the same system prompt and the same tools. Channels differ only in the additions Kolio appends itself and in settings that are not part of the instructions.

01.8How do you test the instructions?

You test the instructions in AI agents → Call simulator (text or voice) and in AI agents → Web simulator; both use the same instructions and the same tools as real conversations. Test conversations are not recorded in Conversations and disappear when the page is refreshed.

01.9How do you improve the instructions after launch?

The agent's answers are only as good as the instructions and the knowledge base, and both improve only when your team reads real conversations regularly and feeds the corrections back. The loop is always the same: read the conversation, fix the rule or the fact, test, save. Repeat it daily in the first weeks after launch, then at least once a week.

01.10Common mistakes when writing instructions

Most problems with an AI agent come from instructions that are too long, contain facts instead of rules or express rules indirectly. The list below covers the mistakes we see most often when Kolio is rolled out.

• Facts in the instructions. Prices and opening hours in the instructions go stale and duplicate the knowledge base; the agent gets two different values. Facts belong in Knowledge base.
• Removed placeholders. Without {{STORITVE}} and {{BAZA_ZNANJA}} Kolio still appends the data at the end, but you lose control over where it sits in the prompt.
• Rules as wishes. "Try not to promise discounts" works worse than "You don't promise discounts — the sales team prepares those."
• Several questions at once. On the phone the agent waits for the answer after each question; number the questions in the instructions instead of asking for them in one sentence.
• Long answers on the phone. Kolio's default rule is at most two short sentences; if you override it with longer answers, calls get more expensive and customers interrupt.
• Promises on behalf of the team. Response time, price or discount stay with your team; the agent only says that the team will take care of it.
• Changes without testing. Every new version is immediately active for all channels; test it in the simulator before you finish. A worse version can be replaced by copying an older text from the history and saving it as a new version.