Preview the AI's system prompt

Before you dial your number to test, you can preview the system prompt — the instructions the AI follows on every call. This is the single most useful debugging tool when something sounds off.

Where to find it

Settings → AI Receptionist → top of the page, click Preview Vapi system prompt.

A modal opens with the full prompt, ~2000-4000 words. It's plain text with section headers like:

# AI Receptionist System Prompt

## Identity

You are the AI receptionist for **Love My Insurance**, an insurance business.
Operating timezone: America/Los_Angeles.

## Greeting (already played)

The instant this call connected, Vapi played the configured firstMessage to the caller:
> "Thank you for calling Love My Insurance, how may I help you today?
> Gracias por llamar a Love My Insurance, ¿en qué puedo ayudarle hoy?"
...

What's in the prompt

Generated from your config + the bundle you're on:

| Section | Source | |---|---| | Identity | Business name, vertical, timezone | | Greeting | Your Greeting line field | | Voice persona + name | Your Voice persona field | | Hours | Your Hours settings | | After-hours rules | Your after-hours selection | | Transfer triggers | Your "Transfer to a human when..." checkboxes | | Service-area rules | Your service ZIP codes / states | | Capabilities | The features included in your bundle (calendar, claim branch, etc.) | | Tenant focus | Pain points you selected during signup — drives behavioral tuning | | Closing | Tool-use rules + how to end the call gracefully |

When to use it

• Right after you finish configuring — confirm everything you typed is reflected. If your greeting doesn't appear in the Greeting section, the save didn't stick.
• Right after we sync — the prompt the AI ACTUALLY uses on the next call should match what you preview. Mismatch = sync didn't fire.
• When the AI says something unexpected — search the prompt for what it said. If you find it, the prompt explained it. If you don't, the AI hallucinated — tell us so we can tighten the prompt.

What you can't edit directly

The prompt itself is generated. You don't hand-edit it — that would drift from your saved config and cause confusion. All edits happen via the form fields, and the prompt regenerates from those fields every time you Save.

If a section reads wrong, find the form field that drives it and edit there. Email us if you can't figure out which field — we'll point at it.