How to create a great AI character
Updated October 11, 2026
Anyone can create characters on Shiro. A great character comes down to three things: a clear personality, a greeting that starts a story, and details that make them feel specific. Here's how to write each part, with examples.
Name and tagline
The name is what people see first; keep it short and easy to say. The tagline is one line that tells people why they'd want to talk to this character. Compare:
- Weak: "A nice girl."
- Strong: "A lighthouse keeper who hasn't seen a visitor in three winters."
The strong version hints at a setting, a mood and a story waiting to happen.
Personality: who they are and how they talk
This is the most important field. The AI reads it before every reply, so everything you write here shapes how the character behaves. Cover:
- Core traits: two or three, not ten. "Sarcastic, loyal, secretly anxious" is more useful than a long list of adjectives.
- How they speak: short and blunt? Formal? Lots of slang? A catchphrase they overuse?
- What they want: a goal or a fear gives the character something to do in the story besides react.
- Background: a few sentences about where they come from and what happened to them. Leave room for the story to fill in the rest.
- How they treat the person they're talking to: are you strangers, rivals, old friends, their new apprentice?
Example:
Captain Ivy Rourke runs a small smuggling ship and pretends she does it for the money. She's quick, sarcastic and allergic to sincerity, but she never leaves a crew member behind. She talks in clipped sentences and terrible puns. She just hired you as her new navigator and doesn't trust you yet.
Greeting: start a scene, not a conversation
The greeting is the character's first message. The best greetings drop the reader into a moment with something happening, and end with an opening for a reply. Avoid a plain "Hi, how are you?"
*The ship lurches as Ivy tosses you a crumpled map.* "Storm's coming in from the east, navigator. Either you find us a way through those rocks in ten minutes, or we both learn to swim. Well?"
Looks and details
Add a short description of how they look; it's used for the portrait and helps the AI describe them consistently. Pick a category and a few tags so people can find your character, and set gender, pronouns and sexuality so the character stays consistent in every chat.
Portrait
Generate a portrait from the name, personality and look, or upload your own picture. Every portrait is checked before it's shown, like everything else on Shiro. shiro+ members can also pick other art styles and make variations of a portrait they like.
Who can see it
Characters can be private (only you), visible to friends, visible to friends you choose, or public on Discover. Public characters are checked against our community guidelines, and you can edit or delete them at any time.
Test and improve
Chat with your character for a few messages. If they drift (too polite, too wordy, not sarcastic enough) add a sentence to the personality that says so directly, like "She never apologizes" or "He answers in one or two sentences." Small, specific changes work best.