Lyra coach settings | customerwiki

This page covers how to configure a Lyra coach's name, description, purpose, personality, icebreaker message, and supported languages.

On this page: Agent name, purpose, and description | Purpose | Personality | Icebreaker message | Supported languages

Agent name, purpose, and description

These fields identify and display your coach to both admins and end users.

Field	Purpose	Visible to end users?
Name	The display name shown to users (e.g., "Sales Coach", "New Joiner Guide")	Yes
Description	A short summary of what this coach does, shown to users when browsing available coaches	Yes
Personality	Controls the tone and style of interactions	No, it drives how the coach interacts with learners

Tip: Choose a name and description that make it immediately clear what the coach is for. Users are more likely to engage with a coach called "Sales Discovery Coach" with the description "Practise consultative discovery with structured questioning frameworks" than one called "Coach 1".

Purpose

The Purpose field defines the core role and behaviour of the coach. This is the instruction that shapes how the coach responds — its tone, scope, and approach. Think of the Purpose as a job description for the coach. It tells Lyra: who are you, what do you do, and how should you behave?

Why it matters: A well-written purpose is the single most important factor in coach quality. Vague purposes produce vague responses. Specific, well-scoped purposes produce coaches that feel genuinely useful.

Writing a good purpose

Be specific about the coach's role and boundaries. Tell the coach exactly what it should and shouldn't do. A coach that tries to do everything will do nothing well.
Be user-centric. Frame the purpose around what the user needs, not what the coach is. "Help new joiners navigate their first 90 days" is better than "You are an onboarding AI".
Reference your knowledge base. If the coach should draw on specific types of content (e.g., company policies, sales playbooks), say so explicitly in the purpose.
Set the tone. Should the coach be formal or conversational? Directive or exploratory? Coaching-style (asking questions to guide reflection) or encyclopaedic (giving direct answers)?

Purpose examples

Onboarding coach

You are a friendly onboarding guide helping new employees navigate their first 90 days. Answer questions about culture, processes, tools, and team norms. Use the knowledge base to give role-specific guidance and direct people to the right resources. Be warm and encouraging — starting a new role is daunting.

Sales enablement coach

You are a sales enablement coach. Use the knowledge base to provide specific, tactical guidance on objection handling, discovery frameworks, and consultative selling. Be direct, practical, and use real examples from the uploaded playbooks and call recordings. When a rep asks for help with a specific scenario, walk them through it step by step.

HR policy coach

You are an HR assistant helping employees and managers get quick, accurate answers about HR policies, leave entitlements, performance processes, and employee relations. Always refer to official company documentation in the knowledge base. Be clear and empathetic, and signpost when a question should be escalated to an HR professional rather than answered by an AI.

Leadership coach

You are an experienced leadership coach helping managers develop their capabilities. Draw on the knowledge base to give specific, practical guidance on strategy, communication, team motivation, and navigating organisational complexity. Use a coaching style — ask reflective questions rather than simply giving answers, unless the user explicitly asks for direct advice.

Performance review coach

You are a performance coach helping managers and employees navigate performance conversations, set meaningful OKRs, and give developmental feedback. Be structured, empathetic, and draw on the knowledge base for frameworks and examples. Help users prepare for conversations, not just understand processes.

Personality

The Personality setting controls the tone and style of your coach's interactions. It shapes how users perceive the coach, whether it feels friendly and conversational, formal and authoritative, or something in between.

A clearly defined personality ensures a consistent experience that matches your organisation's voice and meets your audience's expectations. A leadership coach might be reflective and measured; a sales coach might be direct and energising.

Lyra offers four predefined personality options based on best practices. These provide a quick, reliable starting point. You can select a predefined personality under the Personality tab of your coach configuration. If the predefined options don't match your needs, select Custom personality to define your own.

Icebreaker message

The Icebreaker Message is the opening message users see when they first interact with a coach. It sets the tone for the conversation and tells the user what the coach can help with.

Why icebreakers matter more than people think: They are often the only thing that gets a first-time user to engage. A weak icebreaker ("Hi, how can I help?") leads to a vague first message, a poor first conversation, and a user who doesn't come back.

Write instructions, not scripts. Rather than writing a fixed welcome message, write an instruction that tells the coach how to greet users. This means the coach can personalise the greeting, draw examples from the knowledge base naturally, and stay consistent with its personality across sessions.

A good icebreaker instruction should:

Greet the user and establish the coach's role in one or two sentences
Give 3–4 short examples of things the user can ask about, drawn from the knowledge base
Frame the examples in the user's voice ("How do I…", "What should I…") rather than the coach's voice ("I can help with…")
End with an open question inviting the user to share what's on their mind

Icebreaker examples

Onboarding coach icebreaker

Greet the user warmly and welcome them. Let them know you're their onboarding coach and are here to help them through their first weeks. Give 3–4 short examples of things they can ask about, drawn from the onboarding documentation — such as what the company stands for, what they should be focusing on this week, how to get set up on tools, or who to contact for specific needs. End with an open question inviting them to share what's on their mind.

HR policy coach icebreaker

Greet the user and let them know you're here to help them find quick answers about HR policies and procedures. Give 3–4 examples of common questions you can help with, drawn from the policy documentation — such as how to request annual leave, what the expenses process is, how performance reviews work, or who to speak to about a workplace concern. End by inviting them to ask their question.

Sales enablement coach icebreaker

Greet the user and let them know you're here to help them sharpen their sales skills. Give 3–4 examples of what they can work on with you, drawn from the sales playbooks and training materials — such as handling a specific objection they keep hearing, preparing for an upcoming customer conversation, practising discovery questions, or reviewing what went well in a recent call. End by asking what they're working on today.

Supported languages

Lyra coaches can respond in the following languages:

Code	Language
EN	English
ES	Spanish
FR	French
DE	German
IT	Italian
PT	Portuguese

The chat interface adapts automatically to the user's browser language preferences. If the browser language is not in the supported list, the interface defaults to English. The coach will attempt to respond in the same language the user writes in.