Prompt & tools

Page location: AI Training / Prompt & Tools

Zipchat allows you to fully control how your AI behaves by combining global prompts, additional instructions, and tool-specific prompting.

This layered approach lets you fine-tune tone, goals, escalation behavior, and how actions are performed.

This page explains how each part works and how they interact.

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Overview: How Zipchat AI Is Configured

Zipchat AI behavior is defined through four main layers:

1. Core Prompt – global personality, tone, and rules

2. Contact Info – what to do when human support is needed

3. Additional Instructions – sales flows, positioning, and advanced logic

4. Tools & Tool-Specific Instructions – how and when actions are performed

Each layer builds on top of the previous one.

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Core Prompt (Base Behavior)

The Core Prompt defines Zipchat’s overall behavior and applies to all Zipchat bots. This is the base behaviour of a good e-commerce agent and and it handles most things out of the box.

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Contact Info

The Contact Info field defines what Zipchat should do when a customer wants to talk to a human.

Zipchat uses this information when:

• A visitor explicitly asks for human support

• A conversation is escalated via the Escalation tool

This typically includes:

• A support email address

• Instructions on how to proceed if live help is required

Inside it, you can write down instructions on how to be contacted in free-form text.

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Additional Instructions (Behavior & Sales Logic)

Additional Instructions are layered on top of the Core Prompt and are ideal for defining how Zipchat should operate in practice.

Use this section to:

• Set tone of voice ( use of emojies, specific words, etc )

• Define pre-sales questions

• Tell Zipchat how to handle sepcific cases

Example use cases

• "Before suggestinng a product, ask X, Y & Z"

• "Be cringey and sneak as many dad jokes as possible when replying"

• "Whenever a customer asks about X, do Y"

Think of Additional Instructions as your business playbook

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Tools & Tool-Specific Prompting

Zipchat can perform actions using Tools (for example: Knowledge Search, Escalation, Order Lookup, etc.).

Each tool can be:

• Enabled or disabled

• Activated per channel

• Configured with its own prompting

Tool Core Prompt

Every tool has a Tool Core Prompt that defines:

• When the tool should be used

• The basic conditions for triggering it

Tool Additional Instructions

Each tool also supports Additional Instructions, allowing you to customize:

• How the AI explains the action to the customer

• Extra guardrails or conditions

• Tool-specific behavior without affecting other tools

Why this matters

Tool instructions allow fine-grained control.

Examples:

• Ask clarifying questions before escalating to human support

• Escalate only if the user is asking about this topic

• Create discounts if the customer says the product is too expensive

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List of available tools

• Knowledge Search

• Escalate conversation ( Forward request )

• Order lookup

• Create discounts ( Shopify only )

• Skip Conversation

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Best Practices

• Keep Core Prompts clear and high-level

• Use Additional Instructions for business logic

• Use Tool Instructions for precise control

• Avoid overly long prompts—clarity beats verbosity

• Test changes using Test Chat after updates