Notes for your AI companion: what to write, and what to leave out

There's a button a lot of people never touch in a conversation with a Supa: notes. A small text window, an empty field, and not much explaining what you're supposed to write there.

That's a shame, because it's probably the most useful tool for making a story hold together over time.

What notes actually do

Notes are background information you write for the character. They're attached to the conversation, and the character has them in front of it when it replies. The instruction it gets is simple: use them when the moment calls for it, stay consistent with them, but don't bring them up constantly.

That's the key nuance. Notes aren't a script. If you write that you love jasmine tea, the character shouldn't mention it in every line. But the day you walk into a café together, there's a good chance it orders for you.

Why they matter even with good memory

An AI character doesn't keep the whole conversation in mind. It works with the recent messages, plus a summary of older exchanges once the chat gets long, and how much it takes into account depends on your memory level. Over a story that runs for weeks, a detail mentioned once at the start can eventually drop out of view.

Notes stay. That's why they're for things that absolutely have to stick. For everything else, let the conversation do its job. The full picture is on our page about AI chat with memory.

What to put in

Who you are in the story. Your name (or your character's), your age if it matters, your job, two or three physical traits. "Leah, 29, night-shift nurse, short hair, always a hair tie on her wrist." That's plenty.

What happened that matters. Turning points you don't want forgotten. "We fought about his brother. We made up on the hospital roof. He promised to stop lying." Facts, short, dated if useful.

Your preferences. What you enjoy in scenes, the tone you want, what makes you laugh. "I like it when he teases me, not when he's sappy."

Your limits. What you don't want to happen. This is probably the most useful line in the whole note. "No jealousy scenes." "Never bring up my mother." The character will take it into account.

The pieces of your world. If you play in an invented setting, the two or three things that define it: the city, the factions, the magic rule that changes everything.

What to leave out

Endless style instructions. A three-page note dictating how the character must speak, react and breathe ends up smothering it. It already has its own sheet and personality. Notes add to it, they don't replace it.

Contradictions. "He's shy." Then two paragraphs later: "he flirts with me openly." The character will waver between the two and you'll feel it's inconsistent. Reread.

The full diary. If you copy every scene in, the note becomes a novel nobody really reads, and the important facts get buried. Keep the facts, not the story.

Orders for the next reply. "In your next message, you have to kiss me." That belongs in the conversation, not in notes, which are for things that stay true over time.

A note that works

I'm Leah, 29, night-shift nurse in Chicago. We knew each other in high school, lost touch for 10 years, ran into each other in the ER when you came in (broken wrist, bike crash). You told me you moved back to Chicago for me. I haven't answered yet. I like dry humor and short lines. I don't like long speeches. Limits: no scenes at the hospital during my shifts, that's my job.

Eight lines. Everything's there: identity, shared past, the open question, the tone, a clear limit.

When to update

Not after every message. The right moments are turning points: a revelation, a fight, a reconciliation, a lasting change of place. Take thirty seconds to add a line. And if something stops being true (you moved in the story, a relationship changed), fix the line instead of adding the opposite underneath.

A good habit: reread the note before picking up a conversation you left for a while. You'll see straight away what's missing. If you're interested in shaping your companion more broadly, this piece on personalizing an AI companion goes further.

What notes don't do

They don't turn the character into someone else, and they don't guarantee a detail will come back exactly when you expect it. The character decides when to use them. Sometimes it forgets, sometimes it surprises you by bringing up something you'd forgotten yourself.

It's a tool, not a remote control. But used well, it's what separates a character who knows you from one who meets you fresh every time.

If you've never opened the notes window, pick a character from the catalog, start a conversation and write three lines about yourself. You'll feel the difference before the evening's over.