Directives

Directives are rules that your agents follow in every conversation. They are separate from the agent’s persona — while a persona defines who the agent is, directives define what it must and must not do. Sprigr Teams supports two levels of directives: company directives that apply to every agent, and agent directives that apply to a single agent.

Company directives

Company directives are organisation-wide rules that every agent in your workspace follows, regardless of its role or purpose. They are the guardrails for your entire operation. You set them once in Settings > Directives, and they automatically apply to all current and future agents.

Use company directives for rules that should never be broken by any agent:

• “Never share customer personal information in external communications.”
• “Always respond in Australian English.”
• “Never make promises about delivery dates without checking the schedule first.”
• “Include the company phone number (03 9555 1234) when a customer needs to speak to a human.”

Tip

Company directives are ideal for compliance requirements, brand standards, and privacy rules. If it applies to your whole business, it belongs in company directives.

Setting company directives

1. Go to Settings

   From the sidebar, navigate to Settings.

2. Open the Directives section

   Click on Directives in the settings menu. You will see a text area where you can write your company-wide rules.

3. Write clear, specific rules

   Write each directive as a clear instruction. Be specific about what the agent should or should not do. Vague directives like “be careful with data” are less effective than “Never include customer phone numbers in email subject lines.”

4. Save your changes

   Click Save. The directives take effect immediately for all new messages across every agent.

Agent directives

Agent directives are rules that apply to a single agent only. They are set on the individual agent’s detail page and are useful for role-specific instructions that do not apply to other agents in your organisation.

For example, a quoting agent might have these agent directives:

• “Always include the job reference number when discussing work orders.”
• “When creating quotes, use the standard pricing from the shared knowledge base.”
• “If the total exceeds $5,000, flag the quote for manager review before sending.”
• “Include GST as a separate line item on all quotes.”

Meanwhile, a customer service agent might have completely different directives:

• “Always greet the customer by their first name if it is available.”
• “If the customer mentions an emergency (burst pipe, gas leak, power outage), immediately escalate to the dispatch agent.”
• “Never provide technical troubleshooting advice for gas appliances.”

Setting agent directives

1. Open the agent’s detail page

   From the Agents page, click on the agent you want to configure.

2. Navigate to the Directives tab

   On the agent detail page, find the Directives section. This is where you write rules specific to this agent.

3. Write your directives

   Add rules that are relevant to this agent’s role. These work alongside company directives — the agent follows both sets of rules.

4. Save

   Click Save. The new directives apply immediately to new messages.

How directives work together

When an agent processes a message, it follows both company directives and its own agent directives. If there is a conflict, company directives take priority. This means you can set a company-wide rule like “Never share customer addresses” and be confident that no agent will override it, even if an agent directive accidentally contradicts it.

Here is a practical example of how they layer together:

Level	Directive	Purpose
Company	”Respond in Australian English.”	Brand consistency
Company	”Never share customer personal information externally.”	Privacy compliance
Agent (Quoting)	“Use the standard pricing from the shared knowledge base.”	Role-specific accuracy
Agent (Quoting)	“Include GST as a separate line item.”	Role-specific formatting

The quoting agent follows all four rules. A different agent — say, a scheduling assistant — follows only the two company directives plus its own agent directives.

The directive library

As your organisation grows, you may find yourself writing similar directives across multiple agents. The directive library is a collection of pre-written, reusable directive templates that you can browse and apply to any agent with a single click.

The library includes templates for common scenarios:

• Privacy and compliance — Rules about handling personal data, financial information, and sensitive documents.
• Communication standards — Tone, language, formatting, and sign-off preferences.
• Escalation policies — When and how to hand off to a human or another agent.
• Industry-specific rules — Templates tailored to trades, property management, and field service operations.

You can also save your own custom directives to the library so they can be reused across agents without retyping them.

Note

The directive library does not replace writing your own rules. Think of it as a starting point — browse the templates, pick what applies, and customise them for your business.

Try asking your agent

“Add a company directive that all agents must respond in Australian English and never share customer phone numbers in external communications.”

Best practices

• Be specific. “Never discuss pricing without checking the knowledge base” is better than “Be careful about pricing.”
• Keep them concise. Agents perform best with clear, short rules rather than long paragraphs.
• Test your directives. After adding new rules, have a test conversation to make sure the agent follows them correctly.
• Review regularly. As your business processes change, update your directives to match. Outdated rules can cause confusion.

Next steps

• Agent Settings — Configure other aspects of your agent including persona, tools, and integrations.
• Creating Agents — Build a new agent and apply directives from the start.
• Team Settings — Manage organisation-level settings including company directives.
• Knowledge Bases — Give your agents reference material so directives like “check the knowledge base first” actually work.