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Refining Your Coach

The Refine Coach tab is where you shape how your coach actually behaves. Instead of editing a long system prompt by hand, you chat with your coach in natural language — testing how it responds AND telling it how to change. The system updates your coach's behaviour for you, one rule at a time, and every change is reversible.

You will find it under Build → My Coach → Refine Coach in the sidebar.

How it works​

The Refine Coach surface looks like a normal chat, but it does two things at once:

  • Test mode — Type a question like a subscriber would and your coach answers in character. Useful for sanity-checking tone and accuracy.
  • Edit mode — Tell your coach how to change ("be more direct", "stop opening with a question", "always recommend taking a walk before journalling"). The system recognises this as an instruction, makes the smallest possible update to your coach's behaviour, and shows you a card describing what changed.

You do not need to switch modes. The system detects which one you mean from how you phrase the message. If anything is ambiguous, it asks one clarifying question before changing anything.

tip

You can talk to your coach with your voice too — press the microphone icon to start a voice conversation. Editing in voice mode works exactly the same way: just say what you want to change and you will see a change card appear in the transcript.

Quick actions​

When the chat is empty, you will see five suggestion chips to get you started:

  • Roleplay a scenario — Test how your coach handles a tricky question
  • Be more direct — Tighten the tone
  • Add a signature phrase — Teach your coach a line or metaphor you always use
  • Change the opening question — Adjust how your coach starts conversations
  • Add a topic to avoid — Set a boundary

Tap any chip to drop the prompt into the message box, then send it as-is or tweak first.

What your coach knows​

Press the What your coach knows button in the header to open a side panel showing every behaviour rule your coach currently follows, grouped by section:

  • Role — Who the coach is and who it helps
  • Style — Tone, pace, formality
  • Signature phrases — Verbatim lines kept word-for-word
  • Behaviours — Specific things the coach does
  • Avoid — Things the coach should not do
  • Frameworks — Approaches or models the coach uses
  • Opening — How the coach starts a fresh conversation

Each rule is a single plain-English sentence. Hover any rule to see when it was added; press the trash icon next to it to remove that rule directly without chatting.

note

Your coach must always keep at least one Role rule. If you try to delete the last one, the system blocks it and tells you to teach a new role rule first.

Change cards​

Every edit you make produces a change card inline in the chat — a small block under your message that summarises what the system changed. Press Show what changed to see the before/after. Press Undo to roll back that single edit.

If something goes wrong (or you change your mind two edits later), use the Earlier versions button in the header to see every snapshot of your coach's behaviour with a timestamp. Press Restore this version to roll your coach back to any earlier state.

Reset chat​

The Reset chat button at the top right wipes the transcript so you can start a clean conversation. Resetting the chat does NOT undo any behaviour changes — those persist until you undo them or restore an earlier version.

Persistence​

If you navigate to another dashboard tab and back, your conversation is still there. The transcript is saved per-coach in your browser. Only the Reset chat button clears it.

Editing a specific response​

If your coach gives a reply you do not like, hover over its message and click the small pencil icon that appears. A box opens where you can type what you would prefer instead. When you send the correction, the system:

  1. Adds a rule covering what you want the coach to do
  2. Adds the rejected pattern to the Avoid section

This is the fastest way to turn a single bad answer into a permanent behaviour fix.

Scope​

The Refine Coach surface is for behaviour only. If you ask it to change the title, description, image, price, voice, or knowledge base, it will politely refuse and point you to the right section of the Build dashboard:

  • Title, description, image → Coach details
  • Price → Sponsor seats
  • Voice → Coach details → voice
  • Knowledge files → Coach knowledge

What this replaces​

If you have used the dashboard before, you will recognise that Refine Coach sits where Test Coach used to be. The new editor does everything Test Coach did (chat as a subscriber would, no impact on analytics) plus you can now actually change how your coach behaves without writing a system prompt by hand.

Your existing coach instructions are imported automatically the first time you open the Refine Coach tab. You will see a brief "Importing your existing coach setup…" message in the side panel — that takes a few seconds and only happens once.

Tips​

  • Talk normally. "I want my coach to always recommend a 10-minute walk before journalling" works just as well as a formal rule.
  • Keep rules surgical. One rule per sentence. The system will refuse if a rule becomes too long.
  • Use Signature phrases for anything verbatim. Metaphors, sign-off lines, or favourite turns of phrase live in this section and are preserved word-for-word.
  • Test after every change. Send a sample subscriber-style question right after editing to make sure the new behaviour landed how you wanted.
  • Earlier versions is your safety net. You can never lose a working version of your coach — every change is snapshotted.