Character Guide

Overview

A Character is the reusable persona Alex adopts on a conversation, which is why it is the single place to define identity, tone, knowledge, and safety rules once instead of per campaign. Where a pathway defines the steps of a task, a Character defines who is carrying them out, so the same persona stays consistent across voice, SMS, and chat.

How it works

• When you configure a Character's identity, voice, and behavior once, every line it answers sounds the same, so callers get a consistent experience no matter which number they dial.
• When you attach knowledge bases and route matching intents into published pathways, the persona can both answer freely and follow exact procedures, which covers open questions and structured tasks in one conversation.
• When you preview across voice, chat, and SMS before attaching a number, problems surface while they are still cheap to fix, so your first live caller is not the test.

Important fields

• Character: A reusable AI persona with its own identity, voice, knowledge, and rules.
• Editor tabs: General, Behavior, Knowledge, Security, and Analysis — the five areas that define a persona.
• Preview: The panel for testing the Character over voice, chat, or SMS before it goes live.
• Version: A saved snapshot of the Character. The active version answers live conversations.
• Attached number: The phone line the Character answers, set from Phone Numbers → Assigned Numbers.

Tips

• Good to know: a Character answers questions; a pathway runs procedures. Use both — the persona greets and understands, the pathway completes the task.
• Good to know: build one Character per job rather than one that tries to cover every department.

1. The Character Library

The Character page lists every persona your account has built, and it matters because a Character is the identity callers actually meet. Keeping one Character per job — front desk, after-hours, outbound recall — keeps tone and rules consistent across every channel that persona answers.

Next, open a Character and set who it is on the General tab.

• When each Character owns a single job, its prompt and knowledge stay focused, so answers stay accurate instead of drifting between unrelated topics.
• When you open New Character, nothing is created until your first Save Changes, so you can explore the editor without leaving half-finished personas behind.
• When a Character is attached to a phone number, that line answers with the persona's voice, language, and rules, so the caller experience matches what you configured.
• New Character: Opens an unsaved editor. The Character is only created on your first Save Changes.
• Open: Opens an existing Character in the editor.
• Delete: Removes the Character. Detach its numbers first so no line is left without an answerer.
• Attached number: The phone line this Character answers on, shown under the Character name.
• Good to know: name Characters after the job they do, not the person they sound like — it makes routing decisions obvious months later.

2. General: Identity, Voice, and Language

The General tab defines who the Character is before it speaks a single word, which is why it drives first impressions on every call. Identity, voice, and language settings decide how the persona sounds and which channels it is allowed to answer.

Next, tell the Character how to behave once the conversation starts.

• When the name and role describe the job plainly, teammates can pick the right Character without opening it, so misrouted lines become rare.
• When you choose a voice and language together, pronunciation and pacing stay natural, which keeps callers from asking Alex to repeat itself.
• When you enable only the modalities this persona should handle, the Character answers exactly the channels you intend instead of picking up traffic it was never prepared for.
• Name: What the Character is called in your workspace, for example Front Desk Alex.
• Role: A short job label such as Customer Support that sets the persona's purpose.
• Description: A sentence describing what this Character does, for teammates reviewing the list.
• Tags: Free-form labels used to group Characters, for example dental, intake.
• Voice: The voice catalog entry the Character speaks with on calls.
• Language: The spoken language, which also affects pronunciation and number formatting.
• Background sound: Optional ambience mixed under the call, such as light office noise.
• Modalities: Which channels the Character answers — voice, SMS, and web chat.
• Inbound numbers: The owned numbers this Character answers on.
• Good to know: the company avatar falls back to your company initials until you upload one, so the Character still looks finished on day one.
• Good to know: changing the voice affects new conversations only — calls already in progress keep the voice they started with.

3. Behavior: Prompts, Greeting, and Pathway Routing

The Behavior tab is where personality becomes procedure, and it matters because it decides both how Alex talks and when it hands the conversation to a structured pathway. Clear behavior settings are the difference between a persona that improvises and one that reliably completes tasks.

Next, give the Character the source material it should answer from.

• When the personality prompt states the persona's job, tone, and boundaries, Alex answers open-ended questions consistently, so callers get the same standard of service every time.
• When wait-for-greeting and the interruption threshold match how your callers speak, turn-taking feels natural, which reduces talking over each other.
• When a routing condition matches what the caller wants, the Character hands off to the published pathway you selected, so structured tasks like booking follow exact logic instead of improvisation.
• Personality prompt: The instructions describing the persona's job, tone, and limits.
• Wait for greeting: When on, Alex waits for the caller to speak first.
• Interruption threshold: How readily Alex stops talking when the caller starts speaking.
• Voicemail message: What Alex leaves when an answering machine picks up.
• Transfer phone number: The human line Alex forwards to when a handoff is needed.
• Condition Label: A short name for one routing rule, for example Book an appointment.
• Condition Description: What the caller intent looks like, used to decide when the rule matches.
• Pathway: The published pathway this condition routes into.
• Start node id: Optional entry node so the pathway can begin mid-flow.
• Good to know: pathway routing conditions are currently voice-first — a pathway also needs SMS in its channel list before it will run on text.
• Good to know: keep the personality prompt short and specific; long prompts dilute the instructions that matter most.

4. Knowledge: Knowledge Bases and Memory

The Knowledge tab connects the Character to what your business actually knows, which is why it is the fastest way to stop wrong answers. Attached knowledge bases supply facts, and conversational memory supplies history about the person on the line.

Next, decide what the Character must verify before sharing account details.

• When a knowledge base is attached, Alex quotes from your approved documents instead of guessing, so answers stay accurate and current.
• When you attach only the knowledge bases this persona needs, retrieval stays focused, which keeps answers on topic and responses quick.
• When conversational memory is enabled, the Character recognizes returning callers and their earlier context, so people do not repeat themselves on every contact.
• Attached knowledge bases: The document sets this Character can quote from mid-conversation.
• Enable conversational memory: Lets the Character carry caller context between calls, SMS, and chat.
• Memory store: The store that holds the remembered caller context.
• Good to know: updating a document in a knowledge base updates every Character attached to it — no need to edit each persona.
• Good to know: memory answers who the caller is; knowledge bases answer what your business offers. Most personas need both.

5. Security: Verifying the Caller

The Security tab decides whether the Character proves who it is talking to before sharing anything sensitive, which is why it matters for any persona that touches accounts, billing, or bookings. Verification runs before gated pathways and tools, not after.

Next, choose what the Character records once the conversation ends.

• When authentication is required, the Character verifies identity before a gated pathway or tool runs, so account details are never read out to the wrong person.
• When the verification method matches your callers — an SMS code or a knowledge question — people can pass the check without friction, which keeps completion rates high.
• When the failure message explains the outcome and offers a human, callers who cannot verify still end the conversation with a next step instead of a dead end.
• Require authentication: Turns caller verification on for this Character.
• Verification method: How identity is proven, such as an SMS code sent to the caller's number.
• Code message: The text sent to the caller; include the code placeholder.
• Security question: A knowledge question used instead of, or alongside, a code.
• Gated pathway or tool: The pathway or tool that stays locked until verification passes.
• Failure message: What Alex says when verification does not pass.
• Good to know: only gate what genuinely needs it — verifying a caller who just wants opening hours adds friction with no benefit.

6. Analysis: Summaries, Data, and Webhooks

The Analysis tab turns finished conversations into records your team and systems can use, which is why it matters for reporting and follow-up. A summary prompt shapes the write-up, entity schemas pull out structured fields, and a webhook delivers both.

Next, test the Character before it answers a real caller.

• When the summary prompt names exactly what to capture, every conversation is written up the same way, so reviewing yesterday's calls takes minutes instead of listening to recordings.
• When entity schemas define the fields you care about, Alex extracts them consistently, which makes the data usable in reports without cleanup.
• When a webhook URL is set, summaries and extracted fields arrive in your own system automatically, so no one re-keys results by hand.
• Summary prompt: Instructions describing what the post-conversation summary should cover.
• Entity schemas (JSON): The structured fields to extract, defined as a JSON object.
• Webhook URL: Where the summary and extracted fields are delivered.
• Events: The comma-separated events that trigger delivery, such as call.completed.
• Good to know: webhook deliveries and failures appear under Integrations → Logs, so you can confirm delivery without adding logging on your side.

7. Preview: Voice, Chat, and SMS

Preview lets you experience the Character exactly as a caller would, which is why it is the last checkpoint before going live. Testing all three channels catches wrong voices, missing knowledge, and broken routing while it is still cheap to fix.

Next, attach the Character to the phone line it should answer.

• When you start a voice session in the browser, the Character talks to you through your microphone, so you hear pacing and pronunciation before a customer does.
• When you use Call my phone instead, the Character rings your number from its attached line, which verifies real telephony behavior including caller ID.
• When you send a test SMS or open the chat preview, you confirm the same persona behaves correctly on text, so channel differences surface before launch.
• Voice: Talks to the Character in your browser using your microphone.
• Call my phone instead: Rings a number you enter so you can test the persona over the phone.
• Chat: Opens a text preview through the Character's first mapped pathway.
• SMS: Texts a number you enter so you can check messaging replies.
• Good to know: browser voice previews are logged as an inbound Web Client call, so you will see them in Call History alongside real traffic.
• Good to know: you do not need an attached number to test — previews work before the Character answers any live line.

8. Attach the Character to a Number

A Character only answers real traffic once a phone number points at it, which is why attaching is the step that takes a persona live. Attachment happens from Phone Numbers → Assigned Numbers, and one line answers with one Character.

Next, review how versions protect your changes.

• When you pick a Character for an assigned number, inbound calls and texts on that line are answered by the persona, so the line stops falling back to generic handling.
• When each line maps to the Character built for it, after-hours and daytime traffic get the right tone and rules, which keeps callers from noticing the handoff.
• When you detach a Character before deleting it, no line is left without an answerer, so you avoid silent gaps in coverage.
• Character: The row action that opens the Character picker for that number.
• Setup Call: Jumps to Inbound Voice Settings with the number selected.
• Setup SMS: Jumps to Messaging Settings with the number selected.
• Assigned Numbers: The list of account numbers available to attach.
• Good to know: attaching a Character does not change billing or routing rules on the number — it only decides who answers.

9. Versions and Saving

Every Save Changes writes a new version of the Character, which is why editing live personas is low risk. Versions give you a readable history and a way back if a change makes conversations worse.

Next, revisit Pathways to give this Character structured flows for its most common tasks.

• When you save, the current configuration becomes the active version, so live calls immediately follow the settings you just confirmed.
• When you compare versions before restoring, you can see what changed and why, which prevents undoing a fix while reverting a mistake.
• When a change underperforms, restoring an earlier version returns the persona to known-good behavior without rebuilding it from memory.
• Save Changes: Writes your edits and creates a new version. Stays disabled until something changes.
• Versions: The history panel listing every saved version with its timestamp.
• Active: The version currently answering live conversations.
• Restore: Makes an earlier version active again.
• Good to know: a new Character is not created on the voice engine until the first Save Changes, so abandoning the editor leaves nothing behind.

Next step

Open Pathways next to build the structured flows your Character routes into.