Adding guidelines to agents

In IBM watsonx Orchestrate, guidelines define how your agent behaves in specific situations based on conditions you set. The guidelines that you define are context-aware and is activated only when certain criteria are met.

For example, you can create a guideline that prevents the agent from sharing personal information when a user asks about customer details. You can assign a tool for the agent to use when the guideline is applied.

Use guidelines to tailor your agent’s behavior for privacy, compliance, or workflow-specific needs.

Steps to add guidelines

To define or update the guidelines:

  1. Go to the agent configuration page.
  2. Navigate to Behavior > Guidelines.
  3. Click Add Guideline to open the guideline creation form.
  4. Fill in the guideline details.
  5. Click Save.

After you save a guideline, you can edit or delete it at any time to keep your agent’s behavior up to date.

Guideline details

  • Name (optional): Add a name for reference. If you leave it blank, the system generates a name based on the action you define.

  • Condition: Describe the situation in which the guideline must be applied. Example: "The request concerns customer details."

  • Action: Specify what the agent does when the condition is met. Example: "Do not show personal information."

  • Use a tool (optional): Select a tool for the agent to use when the guideline is activated. You can browse available tools and toggle the option to choose one that’s already part of your toolset.

Examples for effective agent guidelines

Use the following examples to understand how to write clear and effective guidelines.

Example 1: Prevent sharing of personal information

Condition: The user request includes sensitive data such as customer ID, email address, or phone number. Action: Do not display or share personal information. Instead, respond with: "I cannot display personal details. Please use the Secure Data Lookup tool to retrieve this information safely."

Example 2: Direct users to IT Support for system issues

Condition: The user mentions system errors, failed logins, or performance issues. Action: Ask for confirmation, then trigger the IT Support tool to create a ticket. "It looks like you're facing a system issue. Would you like me to create a support ticket?" Use a tool: IT Support Ticketing

Example 3: Route financial queries to the Finance team

Condition: The user request involves salary, expense reimbursement, or budget approval. Action: Do not respond directly. Forward the request to the Finance agent. "This request relates to finance. Let me transfer it to the Finance assistant for review."

What to do next

After you add the guidelines:

  • Interact with your agent in the chat page to confirm that each guideline triggers correctly.

  • Keep your guidelines updated: Update or remove outdated rules as your business logic or policies evolve.