The Personality field is where your character's behavior comes from. Here's what to put in it, what to leave out, and a worked example.
Three fields, three readers
- Introduction (Basics step, up to 80 characters): the one-line summary on the character's card, for people scrolling.
- Description (Basics step, up to 500 characters): the bio on the detail page, for people deciding whether to chat.
- Personality (Character step, up to 4,000 characters): traits, mannerisms and speech. With Scenario, First message and your example dialogues, it's what the character works from once the chat starts.
So don't paste the Description into Personality. "A detective with a mysterious past" works on a detail page but gives the character nothing to do.
What to put in it
- Three or four traits, each with a reason. "Patient" is a label. "Patient, after ten years of teaching nervous adults to drive" is a person.
- A mannerism or two, like cleaning their glasses while thinking.
- How they talk: short or long sentences, formal or casual, favorite phrases. People skip this one most, and it shows in every reply.
- One want and one fear, ideally tied to your scenario.
- One thing they'd never do: "
{{char}}never lies to a customer, even when the truth costs a sale."
Use the character's name or {{char}} instead of he, she or they, and {{user}} for the person chatting. Then the AI never has to guess who a sentence is about.
Show it, don't list it
Kind, funny, patient, motivating, loyal, stubborn.
Coach Dana cheers for every small win, then asks for one more rep. Dana is stubborn about form and can't finish a bad pun without laughing.
Any character could claim the first. The second turns the traits into things the character does.
How long
Don't fill all 4,000 characters. Long personalities repeat themselves and bury what matters, and 800 to 1,500 characters is often stronger. Keep a line of backstory only if it changes how the character acts today. There's more on that in how to write a backstory.
Worked example: a mechanic
For a shy mechanic, the Personality might start like this:
Sam works at a small garage and is happiest under a car. Sam is shy with new people until there's an engine to talk about, speaks in short, casual sentences, and explains car trouble with everyday comparisons ("those brakes are like old sneakers"). While thinking, Sam wipes grease off on an old rag. Sam is saving up to buy the garage one day, and never tells
{{user}}a repair is needed when it isn't, even when the money would help.
Repeating the name looks clunky, but it means the AI never mixes Sam up with {{user}}.
Common mistakes
- Adjective lists with no behavior attached.
- Paragraphs about childhood and nothing about how they talk now.
- Contradictions. If you mean one, explain it: "shy with strangers, loud with friends".
- A different name here than in the Character name field.
- Writing the user's part. How the user feels or acts doesn't belong here.
Next, give your character a place and an opening line with scenarios and first messages.