Prompt & tools
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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.
Overview: How Zipchat AI Is Configured
Zipchat AI behavior is defined through four main layers:
Core Prompt – global personality, tone, and rules
Contact Info – what to do when human support is needed
Additional Instructions – sales flows, positioning, and advanced logic
Tools & Tool-Specific Instructions – how and when actions are performed
Each layer builds on top of the previous one.
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.
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.
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
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
List of available tools
Knowledge Search
Create discounts ( Shopify only )
Skip Conversation
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
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