The Problem: LLMs Act Like General-Purpose Assistants
Traditional system prompts fail to keep agents focused on their specific role. Instead of maintaining their culture, they default to being helpful general-purpose assistants. The issue: Without Culture, agents with prompts easily:- Break character with casual language
- Answer off-topic requests instead of staying focused
- Act like generic AI assistants rather than their assigned role
The Solution: Culture Feature
Upsonic’s Culture keeps agents focused on their specific domain by extracting structured guidelines, wrapping them in XML tags for persistence, and ensuring agents stay on-topic for their role—not acting as general-purpose LLMs. Quick Start:Side-by-Side Comparison
Here’s how Culture transforms agent behavior:❌ Without Culture (Acts as General Assistant)
✅ With Culture (Stays Focused on Role)
Culture vs. User Memory
| Aspect | Culture | User Memory |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Agent’s behavior & communication style | User-specific traits & preferences |
| Scope | Universal (all interactions) | Per-user, per-session |
| Storage | None required | Requires backend |
| Example | ”You are a hotel receptionist" | "User prefers formal tone” |
Configuration Options
repeat=True for:
- Conversations with 10+ messages
- Critical roles requiring strict consistency
Automatic Extraction
Culture analyzes your description and extracts structured guidelines:Use Cases
Best Practices
Do:- Be specific: “You are a hotel receptionist” > “Be professional”
- Define boundaries: Include topics to avoid and help with
- Use
repeat=Truefor 10+ message conversations - Test with casual language to verify persistence
- Use vague descriptions like “Be helpful”
- Set
repeat_intervalbelow 3 (becomes annoying) - Confuse with User Memory (Culture = agent persona, Memory = user traits)
Troubleshooting
Not maintaining character? Enablerepeat=True and make description more specific.
Extraction slow? Check network connectivity or use a faster model.
View extracted guidelines:
Key Takeaways
- Focused behavior: Culture keeps agents on-topic for their role instead of acting as general-purpose assistants
- AI-powered extraction: Automatically extracts structured guidelines from natural descriptions
- Persistent guidelines: Wrapped in XML tags and injected into system prompts for better adherence
- Handles challenges: Maintains persona with casual language, off-topic requests, and direct challenges
- Zero storage: No database required, adds ~100-300 tokens per interaction
- Async extraction: First message may be slightly slower due to guideline preparation

