> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.agentsupply.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.agentsupply.ai/ai-features/prompting/what-is-a-base-system-prompt.md).

# What is a Base System Prompt?

Think of the base system prompt as the "rules" or "instructions" the AI agent will follow.

When you first create an AI agent, it has no context or idea of what you're trying to do.

Think of it like a 6th grader.

We need to provide clear and concise instructions in order for the AI agent to know what to do.

The base system prompt is where you define:

* Personality for the AI agent
* Tone of the AI responses
* Guidelines on how the AI agent will respond
* Guard rails for edge cases
* How to act in certain scenarios
* Formatting of the AI responses

This input trains your Agent, instructing it on how to interact on top of the dynamic information loaded from the knowledge base about the business.

Think of your Agent as an initially uninformed entity, learning through this setup process.

[<br>](https://docs.stammer.ai/stammer.ai-docs/ai-features/prompting)


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