# Lyro Guidance Section: Lyro - AI Agent Description: Tell Lyro how to talk and behave with Guidance: tone of voice, emojis, your own instructions with contact properties, audiences, and the limits on active Guidance. Verified against Tidio panel 12.304.0 Last updated: 2026-11-07 Source: https://help.tidio.com/articles/lyro-guidance/ Lyro **Guidance** allows you to define specific behaviors and preferences for how Lyro should interact with your customers. With **Guidance**, you can give Lyro instructions about the preferred communication style, escalation rules, and other custom directions; you can think of this as **prompting** Lyro to behave a certain way. It is also possible to determine specific **audiences** that your Guidance should apply to. On top of that, you can also decide about Lyro's use of **emojis** and Lyro's preferred **tone of voice**. Note that Guidance does **not** affect **Copilot** functionality; Guidance is restricted to the Lyro AI agent only. **In this article, you will learn:** - [How to navigate Lyro Guidance]() - [How to manage Lyro's use of emojis and tone of voice]() - [How to create Guidance instructions]() - [How to enable (or disable) Lyro Guidance]() - [How to determine Audiences for Guidance]() - [How to check conversations where Guidance was used]() - [What the Guidance limits are]() - [Useful tips on using Guidance]() [Video]() Silent walkthrough. Write an Other guidance that inserts the Email and Shoe size contact properties, test it in the preview, activate it, and open Create a ticket under Add tool in a handoff guidance. ## Navigating Lyro Guidance In the **Lyro AI Agent** section of your Tidio project, open the **Behavior \> Guidance** panel: ![The Lyro AI Agent sidebar has "Behavior" expanded and "Guidance" selected above "Handoff", "Proactive roles", and "Procedures".]() Inside, you will find the different available options, like **Basic answer personalization** and different Guidance **instructions**: ![The Guidance panel shows "Use emojis" enabled, a neutral tone for everyone under "Communication style", and Add buttons for communication style and other guidance.]() 💡 **Please note:** if Lyro also answers your emails, you'll see this note at the top of the **Guidance** page: **Guidance is fully supported in Live conversations. For Emails, only Tone of Voice applies for now.** Your other pieces of guidance keep working in live conversations. To learn how Lyro handles email threads, please see [Lyro on email: answering whole email threads](). ![Lyro AI Agent \> Behavior \> Guidance with Lyro answering emails: the blue info note "Guidance is fully supported in Live conversations. For Emails, only Tone of Voice applies for now." at the top, the Guidance header with the Test Lyro button, and the Basic answer personalization section with the "Use emojis" switch below]() ## Emojis and tone of voice Apart from using Guidance for relatively advanced instructions on how Lyro should behave (which we cover [later]() in this article), you can decide about several simpler aspects as well - in the **Basic answer personalization** section of the **Guidance** tab. ### Emojis By default, Lyro uses **emojis** in its responses. You can make sure Lyro does not use any emojis during conversations - this may be more appropriate for your business. Toggle the **Use emojis** switch to disable (or enable) them: ![The Guidance panel has an arrow pointing to the enabled "Use emojis" switch under "Basic answer personalization".]() ### Tone of voice Lyro helps you offer support that matches your brand and your customers' needs. You will find the available options in the **Communication style** section of **Guidance**: ![The "Communication style" section lists "Tone of voice: Neutral", described as controlling the overall tone of the AI Agent.]() These options allow you to connect with your customers in a way that aligns best with your preferences. You can choose one of the predefined tones: **neutral**, **friendly**, or **formal**. You also get the option to create your own, **custom** tone, by creating a detailed prompt for Lyro. ![The "Tone of voice" dialog offers Neutral, Friendly, Formal, and Custom tones, with Neutral selected and instructions for a clear, professional, impartial style.]() Select one of the predefined tones to see a detailed set of instructions: ![The "Tone of voice" dialog has Friendly selected and instructions to use concise, approachable, conversational language with appropriate emojis.]() Use the **Custom** tone option at the end if you'd like to create your own set of instructions: ![The "Tone of voice" dialog has Custom selected and an empty Instructions field, with "Test" and "Save and close" buttons below.]() ## Creating Guidance instructions In the **Guidance** panel, you can instruct Lyro on the following aspects: - [Communication style]() - [Other]() - [Handoff and escalation]() (on the separate **Handoff** page) ![The Guidance page shows "Communication style" with a neutral tone for everyone and an empty "Other" section, each with an Add button.]() Here you can **instruct** Lyro on the preferred communication style, escalation rules, and other custom directions. You can think of this as **prompting** Lyro to behave a certain way. Note that the **Tone of voice** instructions are already part of the **Communication style** guidance. 💡 Please note that guidances **cannot**: - instruct Lyro to use specific **data sources**; - call** Actions**; - change your **Contact Properties** or Lyro settings. Guidance can **read** contact properties (see [below]()), but to have Lyro update them, use [Procedures](). ### Adding and defining new pieces of guidance Each of these sections (**Communication style** and **Other** here, and the handoff guidance on the **Handoff** page) allows you to **add** **multiple pieces of guidance**, and then manage them individually as needed. These guidances don’t follow a fixed order - they’re all evaluated independently and can run in parallel. However, be careful not to create guidances that conflict with each other, as this may lead to unpredictable behaviors. To add new guidance to a particular subsection, use the **Add** button. You will see a new screen, where you define the **name**, **audience**, and **instructions**. Note the **preview** on the right, where you can safely test your new guidance when ready: ![The "Communication style guidance" editor has Name, Audience, and Instructions fields on the left and a chat preview on the right, with Test, Save and close, and Activate buttons.]() The **name** is just a label for you to quickly identify this piece of guidance later on; it is not seen or used by Lyro in any way. The **audience** allows you to determine which custom audiences will be affected by this specific guidance. If you've created any custom audiences, they will be listed. See more about audiences [in this section]() of the article. The **instructions** are the guidance itself, prompting Lyro to act the way you'd like. Make sure your instructions are as detailed as possible, so that Lyro fully understands your requirements and context. You can also use one of the simple pre-made prompts listed at the bottom of the instructions field for inspiration. Each piece of guidance can be up to **2,500 characters** long - a character counter shows up under the field as you type. ![The guidance editor instructs Lyro to say "school" instead of "business" or "company", with a counter showing 2383 at the bottom of the Instructions field.]() Note that you can insert your** Contact Properties **(default or custom, if you've created any) by using the **Add contact properties** icon in the bottom-left of the instructions: ![The braces icon at the bottom-left of the Instructions field displays the tooltip "Add contact properties".]() The list has two parts: - **Visitor properties** - **Name**, **Email**, **Current URL** and **Timezone**, which Lyro can always read; - **Custom contact properties** - only the ones you've allowed Lyro to read in **Configure \> General**, in the **Contact properties** field of the **Access permissions** section. Use **Manage contact properties** at the bottom of the list to go there. If you haven't allowed any yet, you'll see **No properties available**. ![The guidance editor with the instructions field filled in and the Add contact properties menu open above it: the Visitor properties group (Name, Email, Current URL, Timezone), the Other group with Custom contact properties expanded to show two custom properties (e.g. "Order number" and "Plan"), and Manage contact properties at the bottom]() Guidance only **reads** these properties: it can't save or change them. This lets you select one of your existing properties and dynamically insert it into the text (instead of typing it). Please note that inserting properties this way is **not** necessary, as Lyro has the same knowledge and capabilities. When viewing your instructions, it will be very clear where the custom properties are referenced, which you may find useful: ![The Instructions field includes a "subscription" contact property token, marked by an arrow, in guidance to ask about the customer's subscription type.]() On the right, use the **preview** to see how your new guidance works in context: ![The chat preview shows a visitor asking how to contact the company and Lyro replying with contact form directions while calling the organization "our school".]() Once you're satisfied with the results, click on **Save and close** to save your instructions (or **Activate**, if you want the guidance to be enabled right away). ### Communication style The **Communication style** guidance allows you to define the overall tone of Lyro’s replies. If you'd like Lyro to communicate in a certain way, e.g. use specific vocabulary or avoid certain things, this is a good place to add your prompts. Please note that the **Tone of voice** instructions are already part of this guidance. Here are some examples of guidance: - **Use simple language**: Lyro will prioritize clear, jargon-free responses to improve understanding for all users. - **Keep answers concise**: Lyro will keep its responses as short and to-the-point as possible, avoiding lengthy explanations. ![The "Communication style" list has "Enthusiasm" and "Short and sweet" guidance enabled, with instructions for friendly and brief responses.]() ### Other In the **Other** category of guidance, you can create any additional rules you'd like Lyro to follow. These can be specific behaviors or edge cases not covered elsewhere. Some examples may include: - **Ask for subscription details**: If a customer asks about their subscription, make sure to get their account details first. - **Limit discount codes**: Don't offer discount codes unless directly asked about available discounts. ![The "Other" section has enabled guidance to ask for subscription details and not offer discount codes unless the customer asks for them.]() ### Handoff Handoff guidance can be managed in a **separate** section of your Lyro settings - **Handoff**: ![The Handoff page shows default rules to transfer chats to online agents or create a ticket when offline, plus enabled "Escalate if customer is frustrated" guidance.]() With **Handoff **guidance, you can instruct Lyro on when to pass the conversation to your human support team. This type of guidance is great for handling sensitive or complex topics where a simple escalation process might not be ideal. Here are some examples of handoff/escalation guidance: - **Cancel and refund**: Escalate to a human agent if the visitor requests a refund or wants to cancel an order. - **Escalate if customer is frustrated**: Escalate to a human agent immediately if the customer is angry or annoyed. When you write handoff guidance, the button under the instructions is **Add tool** instead of the contact properties icon. Besides **Add contact properties**, it offers **Escalation \> Create a ticket**, which adds a step that tells Lyro to create a ticket for your team: ![Lyro AI Agent \> Behavior \> Handoff, editing a piece of handoff guidance ("Cancel and refund"): the Instructions field with the Add tool button below it and its menu open, showing Add contact properties, the Escalation label and Create a ticket]() On some projects, **Create a ticket** also lets you choose the department the ticket goes to. ## Enabling and disabling Guidance instructions Any piece of guidance you add can be managed separately in the **Guidance** tab. To **disable (or enable)** a specific piece of guidance, toggle the switch on the right. This lets you turn off a particular set of instructions, without permanently removing it: ![A guidance row shows its switch turned off, beside the conversation icon and three-dot menu.]() To **permanently delete** a piece of guidance (or simply **modify** it), click on the three dots instead, and use the option you need: ![The circled three-dot menu on a guidance row is open, with "Edit" and "Delete" options.]() If your guidance has already been used by Lyro, you can see a list of those conversations when you click on the **View conversations** icon: ![The conversation icon beside a disabled guidance switch displays the tooltip "View conversations".]() ## Specifying custom Audiences for Guidance For each piece of Guidance that you add, you can also set up its **Audience**: the target group of users who meet specific conditions. Audiences must first be created through Lyro's **Configure \> Audiences** tab, however; please see [this guide]() on managing your Audiences in detail. Any piece of Guidance you add will display its Audience in your list, for quick reference: ![The "Other" guidance list shows "Keep it short" enabled, with the Audience column and its "Everyone" value outlined.]() The Audience is set to '**everyone**' by default, but you can modify it by **editing** your Guidance: ![A guidance row shows the "Everyone" audience and its circled three-dot menu open, with "Edit" highlighted above "Delete".]() Inside the editor, you can see the **Audience** section. By clicking on the field, you will see the list of available Audiences to select, as well as the option to **manage** all your existing Audiences: ![The Audience dropdown has "Everyone" selected and offers "Non-English speakers", "Instagram users from France", and "Manage audiences".]() Once you set the Audience you like, you can **save** your Guidance setup - and you will see the new setting in your Guidance list: ![A guidance row shows the audience "from Denmark" beside an enabled switch, conversation icon, and three-dot menu.]() ## Browsing conversations where Guidance was used If you've added any of your own custom pieces of Guidance, you will be able to check all the **conversations** where that particular Guidance was used. Inside the **Guidance** section, each added Guidance in your list will include the **View conversations** button on the far right: ![The conversation icon on an enabled guidance row is circled and displays the tooltip "View conversations".]() Once you click on it, you will see a window pop up. It will list all the conversations where these specific instructions have been used, so that you can review Lyro's performance in that regard. You can also use the **calendar** option in the top-right to select a specific timeframe that you're interested in. ![The "Lyro conversation" window lists chats using "Tone of voice: Friendly", with a date filter, a selected resolved chat, and a "Go to conversation" link.]() ## The limits of Guidance There is a limit on the **amount of active Guidance** in your Tidio project (switched on, including your handoff guidance), and this limit changes with your paid subscription. - In general, you are allowed **up to 5** pieces of Guidance on your Tidio project. This limitation is the same for the initial 7-day trial, the free version of Tidio, as well as any paid version of Tidio that is not the Plus or Premium package; - Subscribers of the **Plus** package are allowed **up to 10** pieces of Guidance; - **More than 10** pieces of Guidance are allowed for subscribers of the **Premium** package. If you have a certain amount of Guidance active and you downgrade to a package that allows fewer pieces of Guidance - the** most executed** piece of Guidance will remain **active**, while the rest gets **disabled**. Of course, you can decide which piece of Guidance is enabled and which isn't, as you can change this manually. A few more things to keep in mind: - Active [Proactive roles]() count toward the same limit as your Guidance. For example, with a limit of 5, three active pieces of guidance and two active Proactive roles use up the whole limit. - The tone of voice doesn't count toward the limit. - Once you reach the limit, the switch next to any inactive guidance is grayed out. Hover over it to see **Your current plan includes 5 active Guidance.** (with your plan's number) and, if you manage billing, an **Upgrade** link. To switch on another piece, switch one off first. - Separately, a project can have up to **100** pieces of Guidance in total, active or not. When you get there, the **Add** button is grayed out with the message **You’ve reached the limit of 100 Guidances. To add a new one, please delete an existing Guidance.** - Each piece of guidance can be up to **2,500** characters long. ![The Communication style list on the Guidance page with the active limit reached: an inactive piece of guidance with its switch grayed out, and the tooltip over it reading "Your current plan includes 5 active Guidance. To activate more, Upgrade"]() ## Tips on using Guidance ### Language use You can instruct Lyro to behave differently depending on the visitor's language. For example, you can add guidance that says "*If the client is speaking French, mention that we offer individual consulting sessions*"; or "*If the client is speaking German, only use formal language*." Of course, you do not need to instruct Lyro to simply respond in the visitor's language - Lyro does that on its own by default (as long as you have your language settings configured properly in Tidio). Please see more about Lyro's multilanguage support[ in this dedicated guide](). ### Responding to greetings and gratitude If you want Lyro to respond in a specific way when visitors greet you or send their thanks, you can add pieces of guidance that will instruct Lyro accordingly. The AI agent will not use any predefined message, nor say something that may be less than ideal for your business; with Guidance, you can control the way Lyro reacts to many common phrases, even if they feel like minor details. ### Working with links You can add **hyperlinks** to your guidances, but be aware that if you want them to display as some specific custom text, you need to use **Markdown** notation. Use the format below as a general rule: ` [Title](link) ` Here are a couple of examples to illustrate this: #### Without Markdown: - ` www.tidio.com ` will appear as: [***www.tidio.com***]() - ` Go to www.tidio.com/blog ` will appear as:** *****Go to ******www.tidio.com/blog*** #### With Markdown: - ` [Tidio homepage](www.tidio.com) ` will appear as: [***Tidio homepage***]() - ` Go to [our blog](www.tidio.com/blog) ` will appear as: ***Go to ******our blog*** ### Math and time calculations Lyro does **not** perform built-in math or time calculations on its own. To handle this, create a **Lyro Action** that connects to an external service (e.g. **Tray.io** or **Zapier**) to run the calculation and return the result. Please see [this guide]() in using **Lyro Actions** and their advanced **API** functionality. ### Using a visitor's recorded name and email If a customer of yours has already provided their **name** or **email** and it's saved as a Contact Property in your project, Lyro is able to access that information. While Lyro doesn't normally use a customer's name or email on its own, Guidance can be used to instruct Lyro otherwise. For example, you can instruct Lyro to ask if the customer's email on file is best for contacting them later. ### Using a visitor's current URL Lyro can detect a visitor's** current page address **automatically, which allows you to use this information in responses. This can be especially valuable if Lyro is expected to advise on something that is related to the page that the visitor is browsing at the moment. For example, if Lyro has access to your **product database** (either via Shopify integration or OpenAPI), it can provide information on the product the visitor is currently viewing. This way, Lyro doesn't need to ask the visitor about the product first, nor use any previously-recorded data. ### Agent availability Lyro knows when an agent is online or offline, which allows you to instruct Lyro to behave differently depending on the current availability. ## Further reading - Lyro - the conversational AI agent - [Lyro on email: answering whole email threads]() - [Test Lyro before it goes live]() - [Lyro Procedures]() - [Lyro - Proactive roles]() - [Lyro Actions]()