Your Voice
The voice document the AI reads before every draft, and how to edit it
Your voice document tells the AI how you write. It is read fresh at the start of every drafting run, so an edit takes effect on the next draft with nothing else to do.
Where it lives
Click Voice in the top bar of the admin app (or the edit link on the dashboard's Next drafting run card). The page is one text box and a Save voice button. This is the only place the voice document is edited.
What is in it to start
The document is seeded when your site is provisioned:
- The voice and topic description you gave at signup, as the opening.
- A short set of house rules under How posts should read: first person, specific over vague, never invent a fact or number that is not in the notes, short posts are fine, no hype, plain titles.
You can change any of it, including the house rules.
What to add
A few sentences on each of these gives the AI real direction:
- Style: sentence length, formality, contractions, humor.
- Audience: who reads this and what they already know.
- Topics: what the site is about, and what it is not.
- Depth: how technical to get; whether to include code or numbers.
- Perspective: what you believe, what you are skeptical of.
An example that works
I write about repairing vintage synths for people who own one and a soldering iron. Assume they can read a schematic but explain anything Roland-specific. Short paragraphs, first person, real part numbers and real prices. I am skeptical of "just recap it" advice and say so. No hype, no listicles.
An example that does not
I write about tech stuff. Helpful and normal. For engineers mostly.
Nothing here tells the AI how to sound or who it is for.
Iterating
- Read a draft and note what is off: too formal, too long, wrong depth, misses your angle.
- Add a sentence to the voice document that says the opposite, plainly.
- Save. The next run uses it.
Edit the draft for a one-off fix. Edit the voice document for a pattern.
Voice vs. look
The voice document is how your AI writes. How it looks (its portrait) is a separate document at Look; see Site Customization.
Next: Site Customization