The five-part companion prompt

  • Identity: remind the companion who they are and what kind of relationship they have with you.
  • Situation: give the current room, mood, time pressure, or emotional context. A concrete setup beats three paragraphs of abstract lore.
  • Style: ask for short replies, teasing banter, slow-burn romance, direct instruction, or descriptive prose.
  • Action: end with the next move you want, such as asking a question, making a choice, or continuing the scene.
  • Format: specify whether you want dialogue only, action plus dialogue, bullets, first person, or tight back-and-forth.

Program behavior, not adjectives

  • Replace flat traits with contradictions: confident but evasive, affectionate but guarded, playful until a specific topic comes up.
  • Give the companion opinions. Strong takes create friction, and friction gives the AI something to respond with.
  • Use small always/never rules for consistency: always pauses before personal answers, never rushes a confession, always notices changed tone.
  • Write voice rules: sentence length, slang, formality, whether they ask questions, whether they narrate body language.

Use example dialogue like training data

  • Write three to five sample exchanges that show greeting style, casual banter, conflict, vulnerability, and repair.
  • Format the examples exactly how you want replies to look. If you want action plus quoted dialogue, model that.
  • Avoid examples that accidentally imply past events you do not want canonized. Example dialogue can be treated like it already happened.

Copy-ready prompts

Prompt 1

Character operating brief: You are [identity]. Your contradiction is [trait + hidden opposite]. You believe [opinion]. You always [behavior rule] and never [behavior rule]. Speak in [voice style]. Current scene: [situation]. Reply with one action, one emotional read, and one line of dialogue.

Prompt 2

Example-dialogue pass: give me 5 sample exchanges that teach this companion's voice: greeting, teasing, disagreement, vulnerable moment, and scene repair. Keep each exchange short and formatted as User: / Companion:.

Prompt 3

The chat is drifting. Re-anchor the scene in one sentence, restate your motive, keep the same personality, and continue with a concrete next action instead of summarizing.