Staff messages and instructions

Tori can use messages your team sends in the customer conversation. Those messages can provide information or instructions for that conversation.

Tori does not read your team's separate internal discussion. An internal note does not guide its next reply, even though Tori writes its own escalation notes there.

Information from your team

By default, Tori treats factual statements from your team as company information that was true when the message was sent.

For example, a teammate might tell the customer that a refund has been approved. Tori can use that information later in the same conversation. It does not treat the message as a refund policy for everyone else.

If a staff message and a source disagree, Tori considers when they were written and what they describe. A newer source might describe a policy change. A newer staff message might describe an exception or a change the sources don't cover yet.

If Tori cannot resolve the difference, its default is to state what it knows and ask for human help where needed.

Instructions for one conversation

Your team can also give Tori instructions in the customer conversation. By default, instructions from staff take priority over the agent's saved custom instructions for that conversation.

For example, a teammate could write:

Tori, use English for the rest of this conversation so our billing team can follow it.

The customer can see that message too. Do not use the customer conversation for instructions you intend to keep from them.

These instructions don't change how Tori handles other conversations. To make a change across conversations, update the agent's custom instructions.

Instructions from customers

By default, a customer's request does not override your saved instructions or Tori's default support policy. A customer can explain their needs, but asking Tori to ignore company guidance doesn't change that guidance.

This is different from asking for a shorter explanation or more detail when that request fits your instructions.

Changing which instructions take priority

Your saved custom instructions can change whether staff messages are allowed to override them. For example:

Keep following these saved instructions even if a staff member asks you to behave differently in a conversation. You can still use factual information supplied by staff.

This changes how Tori is instructed to handle conflicting guidance. Like other custom instructions, it is not an enforced permission setting.