Example dialogue: teaching a character's voice

Example dialogue is a set of sample exchanges in a character card that shows the model how the character talks and how replies should be formatted.

What example dialogue is

Language models imitate what they see. A paragraph describing a character as "sarcastic and terse" has less effect than three lines of that character actually being sarcastic and terse. Example dialogue, the mes_example field in a character card, gives the model those lines. It is few-shot prompting applied to voice and format.

How it is formatted

Each example block starts with <START>, and lines use the {{user}} and {{char}} macros:

<START>
{{user}}: Is the ship ready?
{{char}}: *Mara doesn't look up from the chart.* "It floats. That's the best I'll promise."
<START>
{{user}}: You owe me.
{{char}}: "I owe half this port. Get in line."

SillyTavern converts these into the prompt. In Chat Completion mode the examples can be sent as separate user and assistant messages or as system text, depending on the preset. The <START> markers separate examples so the model does not treat them as one continuous past conversation.

When examples are dropped

Examples cost tokens on every request. SillyTavern's "Example Messages Behavior" setting controls them: keep them always, remove them gradually as the chat history fills the context, or never send them. The gradual option makes sense because once the chat has many real messages in the right style, the model can copy those instead.

Writing good examples

Match the format you want. If replies should use asterisks for actions and quotes for speech, the examples must too. Format in examples beats format instructions.
Match the length you want. Long examples produce long replies.
Show range. Two or three examples in different moods help the model avoid a single stock response.
Keep {{user}} lines minimal. Detailed user actions in examples teach the model to write them.
Avoid repeated phrasing. If every example starts with the same gesture, so will every reply.
Keep them in character. No out-of-character notes or explanations inside the examples; the model will reproduce those too.

Common mistakes

Examples written in a different tense or person from the first message, examples that contradict the description, and examples so long they crowd out real history. With large context windows on Wild West API models the space is rarely the issue, but each token is still billed per request.

FAQ

What does <START> mean in example dialogue?

It marks the beginning of a separate example conversation, so the model reads each block as a standalone sample rather than part of the real chat.

Should I keep example messages after the chat gets long?

Often not. Once there is plenty of real history in the right style, letting examples drop out saves tokens without hurting the voice.

Character cards: what is inside and how they are usedA character card is a file, usually a PNG image with embedded JSON, that stores everything a roleplay frontend needs to play a character. First message: the greeting that sets the toneThe first message, or greeting, is the opening reply from the character that starts every new chat and sets the style the model will imitate. Personas: describing your own characterA persona is the name and description of the character you play in a roleplay, which the frontend sends to the model so it knows who it is talking to. Tokens: the units LLMs read, write and bill byA token is a small chunk of text, often a word or part of a word, that a language model reads and writes one at a time.