---
slug: personality
title: Personality
---

# Personality

A personality defines how your agent thinks and speaks. It holds the instructions that shape every response, the messages the agent sends at the start and end of a conversation, and the choice of underlying AI model. You can create multiple personalities and assign any one of them to an agent.

## What a personality contains

| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| **Instructions** | What the agent knows and how it should behave — tone, rules, what to focus on, what to avoid |
| **Greeting message** | The first message the agent sends when a conversation starts |
| **Fallback message** | What the agent says if it cannot help with a request |
| **Underlying AI model** | Which Claude model powers the agent |

### Choosing an AI model

Elaras supports models from Anthropic and OpenAI.

| Model | Best for |
|---|---|
| **Claude Haiku** | Fast responses, lower credit cost, high-volume agents, simple Q&A |
| **Claude Sonnet** | More capable reasoning, complex queries, nuanced instructions |
| **Claude Opus** | Most capable — complex instructions, long documents, multi-step reasoning |
| **GPT-4o mini** | OpenAI alternative, fast and cost-efficient |
| **GPT-4o** | OpenAI's most capable model, comparable to Sonnet |

If you are unsure, start with Claude Haiku and switch up if you need more thorough responses.

## Versions

Personalities are versioned. You always work on a **draft** version. When the draft is ready, you publish it — the published version becomes the one your agent uses. Published versions are locked and cannot be edited.

| State | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| **Draft** | Editable. Not visible to visitors. Available in the preview panel for testing. |
| **Published** | Locked. Active on any agents assigned to this personality. |

Only one version can be published at a time. Publishing a new version automatically replaces the previous one.

## Creating a personality

Go to **Personality > New personality** in your agent's settings. Give it a name, then configure the first version:

1. Write the instructions
2. Set the greeting and fallback messages
3. Choose the underlying model
4. Save as draft

## Editing a draft

Draft versions are fully editable. Open the draft and make your changes — instructions, greeting, model choice. Changes save automatically.

## Publishing a version

Before you can publish, the draft must pass the testing gate: at least one scenario must exist and the most recent test run must pass. See [Testing](/docs/ask/testing) for details.

When ready, click **Publish**. Agents assigned to this personality switch to the new version immediately.

## Cloning a version

To iterate on a published version without editing it directly, open the version menu and choose **Clone**. This creates a new draft that is an exact copy. Use it for instruction refinements, A/B testing, or rolling back — clone the previous published version, then publish the clone.

## Assigning a personality to an agent

An agent uses one published personality at a time. Open the agent's **Settings** tab and choose a personality from the dropdown. The agent immediately starts using that personality's currently published version. When you publish a new version later, the agent picks it up automatically — no reassignment needed.

## Typical workflow

1. Clone the current published version.
2. Edit the instructions in the new draft.
3. Test using the preview panel and run scenarios.
4. Publish the draft — all assigned agents switch over immediately.
5. If something is wrong, clone the previous published version and publish it to roll back.