How to Set Up Alternate Greetings for Different Conversation Contexts

Every character has a primary first message — the opening line that starts every conversation. Most creators write one and move on. The Alternate Greetings field is where you write the others.

The field description is brief: "Different opening messages for variety (alternate_greetings)." What variety means in practice, and why it matters, is what this article covers.

What Alternate Greetings Are

In the Blueprint Editor's Dialogue section, beneath the primary First Message field, the Alternate Greetings panel lets you add additional opening messages. Each one is numbered — #1, #2, #3 — and can be removed or replaced independently.

In the CCv2 (Character Card V2) standard, these map to alternate_greetings, a dedicated field that has existed in the character card format since its earliest versions. The format designers included it because one opening message rarely covers the full range of ways a character might enter a conversation.

The primary First Message (first_mes) is the default entry point — the opening the character uses most. Alternate greetings are additional entry points that represent different states, scenarios, or tones the character might open with.

The Difference Between First Message and Alternate Greetings

The First Message defines the canonical opening: the specific scene, relationship state, and character mood that represents the character's default starting point.

Alternate greetings define non-canonical openings: the character in a different scene, a different emotional state, a different relationship with the user, or a different moment in their story.

The practical distinction:

• First Message — the opening that fits the character's default scenario from the Scene Setup fields (setting, character action, relationship)
• Alternate Greetings — openings for different scenarios that the same character might enter from

A detective character's primary first message might open at the beginning of a case, before anything has gone wrong. An alternate greeting might open mid-investigation, with the character already frustrated. Another might open with the character off-duty, in a different register entirely.

The same character, different entry points, different conversational starting states.

What "Different Conversation Contexts" Means

When thinking about which alternate greetings to write, context means three things:

1. Relationship state at the start

The Dialogue section's Scene Setup panel has a Relationship at start field with eight suggested values: Strangers, Acquaintances, Old friends, Colleagues, Rivals, Former partners, Neighbors, Mentor and student.

A character who opens as a stranger is in a different behavioral state than the same character opening as an old friend. The dialogue register is different. What the character is willing to say is different. What they know about the user is different.

If your character is used in different relationship contexts — sometimes fresh, sometimes recurring — alternate greetings let you write opening messages that fit each relationship state rather than forcing every conversation to start at the same point.

2. Emotional or situational state

The same character can be in different places emotionally at the start of a conversation. A companion character who is usually calm might have an alternate greeting where they are clearly struggling with something. A professional character might have an alternate greeting that opens in a crisis rather than a routine moment.

These different emotional states create different conversational dynamics from the first exchange. The user's first response is shaped by what they encounter, and encountering a character who is off-balance produces a different kind of conversation than encountering one who is in control.

3. Tonal register

Some characters have a range. A character who is generally warm might sometimes open sharply; a character who is usually formal might sometimes open casually. Alternate greetings can capture these different tonal registers as distinct entry points, giving the same character multiple valid opening voices rather than locking every conversation into the same register.

Writing Alternate Greetings

The formatting conventions are the same as the primary First Message.

From the editor tip: "Use *asterisks* for actions, regular text for speech."

A greeting that combines action and speech:

*She's standing at the window when you enter, back to the door, watching the rain*
 
She doesn't turn around immediately. "You're late." Not an accusation. Just fact. 
Finally she turns. "Sit down. We need to talk about what happened last night."

A greeting without action narration:

"I didn't expect to hear from you again. Not after what happened." 
A pause. "But you're here, so. I suppose we should talk."

The formatting the character uses in alternate greetings should be consistent with the formatting they use throughout the conversation. If your character uses action narration in example dialogues and in their primary first message, use it in alternate greetings too.

Length: Match the length of the primary first message. If the primary message runs two paragraphs, alternate greetings should be similar in length. A dramatically shorter or longer alternate greeting will signal to the model that responses can vary that much, which usually produces inconsistency.

Voice: The alternate greeting should sound unmistakably like the same character. Different state, same voice. If you read the primary first message and the alternate greeting back-to-back, the same person should be recognizable in both.

The AI Generation Feature

Click Generate in the Alternate Greetings panel and the system produces 2–3 alternate openings. The AI generation instruction: "Write 2-3 alternate opening messages for this character, each with a different tone or scenario. Use asterisks for actions. Each should showcase a different facet of the character's personality."

The generated greetings will be reasonable expressions of the character's personality in different modes. They are a starting point.

The most useful edits after generation:

1. Make the scenario more specific. "In a different mood" is vague; "after they received difficult news" is specific and generates a different quality of response from users.
2. Check that the voice is consistent. The AI sometimes overdrives the character's traits in alternate greetings to make the difference legible. Pull it back to the same register as the primary message.
3. Verify the relationship state is correct. If your primary first message opens as strangers, an alternate that assumes familiarity may not fit. Decide explicitly whether each alternate inherits the same relationship state or defines a different one.

Connecting to the Scene Setup Fields

The Scene Setup panel (setting, character action, relationship at start) is designed to help you write the primary first message by giving you structured scaffolding before writing.

When writing alternate greetings, it helps to think of each alternate as having its own invisible Scene Setup:

• Where is this version set? Is it the same location as the primary, or somewhere different?
• What is the character doing when the user arrives? Different action implies different emotional and physical state.
• What is the relationship at the start of this version? The same as primary, or different?

You do not fill in a separate Scene Setup for each alternate greeting — the field only holds the final text. But reasoning through these three questions before writing each greeting produces a more coherent, specific result than trying to write variety for its own sake.

How Many to Write

The field has no hard limit. Practically, 2–4 alternates is the useful range for most characters.

Fewer than two limits variety; every conversation starts the same way. More than four alternates for a single character often means some of them are redundant — two greetings that are essentially the same tone or scenario with different surface details.

Think of each alternate as a distinct entry point with a clear purpose:

• One that represents a different relationship state than the default (if applicable)
• One that opens the character in a different emotional state
• One that represents a tonal mode the character uses less often

That is three clear alternates with distinct purposes. Beyond that, assess whether the additional greeting is genuinely different or is the same scenario with different words.

Alternate Greetings and CCv2 Compatibility

When you export a character as a CCv2 card (Character Card V2 format, via the Settings tab), alternate greetings export as the alternate_greetings field — an array of strings alongside the primary first_mes. This is the standard field that other CCv2-compatible platforms and frontends recognize.

If you share a character card and someone opens it on a different platform that supports alternate greeting selection, they will see your alternate greetings as options alongside the primary. The quality of alternate greetings affects the character's experience on any platform that surfaces them.

In the SOUL.md export format (used for OpenClaw workspace compatibility), alternate greetings appear under a ## Alternate Greetings section as a bulleted list. Any platform that parses SOUL.md will find and use them in the standard format.

Common Mistakes

Alternate greetings that all start the same way. If every greeting opens with the character looking up or greeting the user directly, the functional variety is low even if the emotional states differ. Vary the character's position in the scene — sometimes in the middle of something, sometimes waiting, sometimes unaware the user has arrived.

Alternates that break established scenario facts. If the primary scene setup places the character in a specific world or context, alternates that contradict that world (a medieval character suddenly in a modern setting, a professional character at home when they are always depicted at work) create dissonance. Alternates should be consistent with who and where the character is, even when opening from a different angle.

Forcing variety at the expense of voice. Not every character has radically different modes. A character whose primary first message captures them well may need only one alternate that represents a slightly different entry point. Do not write alternates for the sake of quantity.

Open the Blueprint Editor and add alternate greetings →

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