Prompt Templates (Advanced)

Prompt templates give you direct control over the prompts AutoPersonas sends to the image and caption models. They're an opt-in advanced feature, the default prompts work great out of the box, and most users never need to touch them.

Use with care. Custom templates bypass the safety polish applied to default prompts. If a template produces off-brand or off-policy output, revert to the built-in template from the character's Advanced tab.

What is a prompt template?

A prompt template is a parameterized string the generation pipeline renders at request time. It has two parts:

Static scaffolding, the instructions and formatting the model sees on every call.
Variables, placeholders like {{character.name}}, {{mood}}, or {{wardrobe}} that are filled in per-generation from the character and slot context.

The editor highlights variable references so you can see at a glance which values a template pulls in.

Managing templates

Go to Settings → Prompt Templates to see the library:

Built-in templates ship with the product and are read-only; you can clone one to start a custom version.
Custom templates live in your account and can be edited, duplicated, or deleted.
Each template belongs to a category, for example, image generation, caption generation, or scene planning, and is only assignable where that category is used.

Assigning a template to a character

Open any character and click the Advanced tab. Each template category has a dropdown:

Default, use the built-in template. Safe to leave on this for most characters.
Custom selection, pick any of your custom templates for that category. The next generation for this character will use it.

Changes apply to future generations only. Content already in the review queue continues to use the template it was generated with.

Testing a template

The editor has a preview panel that renders the template with sample variables. That tells you the prompt looks right; it does not run a generation. To see a real generation, save the template, assign it to a test character, and create a new post from the Content page.

Consistency across surfaces

A template behaves the same way no matter where the generation is kicked off, dashboard, REST API, or scheduled queue. Saving the template once is enough; it applies on every subsequent generation for any character it's assigned to.

When to use custom templates

You're running a stylistically unusual character (very specific aesthetic, niche voice) where the defaults feel generic.
You want to hard-enforce a phrase, hashtag, or structure on every caption.
You're iterating on a prompt design and want per-character experimentation before rolling changes into the defaults.

When not to use them

The defaults already produce content you're happy with; custom templates add maintenance overhead.
You're trying to solve a persona or tone issue, the character's personality, writing style, and ingredient library fields are a better lever than prompt edits.
You need to bypass content-safety rules. Templates don't do that, and attempts to will be caught by downstream moderation.

Troubleshooting

Generation fails with a rendering error, the template references a variable that isn't available in this context. Check the editor's variable list and remove any that don't belong to the category.
Output looks nothing like the character: confirm the template pulls in character variables ({{character.name}}, {{character.baseAppearance}}, {{character.wardrobe}}) and that the character's ingredient library has values in those fields.
I broke something and want to start over: reset the character's Advanced tab to Default for every category; the built-in template resumes immediately.