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AI Settings

AI Settings

The AI Settings page lets you give TimberCloud's AI features company-wide context — your terminology, product naming conventions, and preferences — so the AI makes better decisions on every request. You set this once, and it's applied automatically wherever AI is used across your account.

Note: AI is included from the Commerce plan and up — it's native to TimberCloud, not a separately billed add-on. See the AI overview for everything AI can do and which plan unlocks each feature.

Where to find it

Go to Settings → Catalog → AI Settings. (AI Settings is a tab in your catalog/product settings area.) You'll see a single Global AI Instructions field — a large text box where you type the guidance you want the AI to follow.

What the Global AI Instructions do

The Global AI Instructions are a free-text prompt that is included with every AI request behind the scenes. Think of it as a standing note to the AI that says, "Here's how my business names things and what I prefer." It's the place to teach the AI the things only you know about your catalog.

This is especially powerful for the AI Order Assistant, which reads uploaded blueprints, PDFs, spreadsheets, photos, and CAD files and matches them to your catalog. If a customer's drawing uses a shorthand or part code that doesn't literally match your product names, your instructions tell the AI how to interpret it — dramatically improving how reliably it picks the right product and options.

The same context helps TimberCloud's other AI features speak your language, including:

Tip: Use the instructions to encode terminology and mappings, not one-off rules. For pricing logic, use the AI Pricing Assistant or the Formula Builder; for a single document, use the per-upload Analysis Instructions field on the AI Order Assistant instead.

How to write an effective prompt

Write short, concrete statements that resolve ambiguity. A few patterns that work well:

  • Map shorthand and part codes to your products. Spell out abbreviations the AI wouldn't otherwise know.
    • "When a document says PRP15 it refers to our Slab Door product."
    • "MDF and Medex are always Slab Door, not Cope and Stick."
  • Clarify naming and synonyms. Tell the AI which words you treat as equivalent.
    • "Drawer fronts with FF in the notes means Full Frame Drawer Front."
    • "We call hinges 'hardware', not 'accessories'."
  • State defaults and preferences. Give the AI a sensible fallback when a document is silent.
    • "If no finish is specified, default to Unfinished."
    • "Assume dimensions are in inches unless the document says otherwise."
  • Set your brand voice (for Site Builder copy). Keep it brief.
    • "Write in a warm, craftsman tone. Avoid hype words like 'revolutionary'."

Keep each instruction to one idea per line. Specific, factual mappings ("X means Y") help the AI far more than vague style notes. You can paste in as many lines as you need — the field grows as you type and shows a character count.

Example

- "PRP" prefixes are our Premium Raised Panel line.
- "Shaker" with no other detail means the 5-Piece Shaker Door.
- Paint-grade species defaults to Soft Maple.
- When quantities are listed as pairs, multiply by 2 for line-item count.

Saving and editing

  1. Type or paste your instructions into the Global AI Instructions box.
  2. Click Save Changes.

That's it — the instructions take effect immediately and apply company-wide, to every user and every AI request from your account. They are editable anytime: come back and refine them whenever you add products, notice the AI making the same mistake, or change your terminology. Leaving the box empty simply means no extra company context is added.

Important: Global AI Instructions are scoped to your company only. Your content is processed per request for your account, isn't shared across tenants, and isn't used to train AI models. See AI overview for more on AI privacy.

Related pages

Product SettingsOrder Settings