Something is going wrong with my anti-repetition guidance. No matter what, Fin will not stop repeating/rephrasing the same answer multiple times. I have guidance on asking clarifying questions and am wondering if that’s part of the issue. My adjustments to clarification guidance also aren’t making things better. Using optimize and other ai tools isn’t helping.
I’m stuck and am a team of one. If you have any suggestions or examples that work well for you, please list them here!
Best answer by Christopher Boerger
Hey Amber! Sorry to hear you're stuck on this — here are a few things worth checking:
1. Check for conflicting or overlapping guidance rules
This is the most common cause of Fin rephrasing and circling back with the same answer. If you have multiple guidance rules that touch similar behavior (e.g. clarification + answer style + follow-up), they can interact in unexpected ways. The Fin Guidance best practices doc recommends keeping each rule focused on a single objective — one purpose per rule, no chaining. It also suggests regularly auditing for redundant or contradictory rules and removing them.
2. The "question mark trick" to control follow-up questions
After answering, Fin automatically generates a feedback question (e.g. "Is that what you were looking for?"). If your clarifying question guidance is clashing with this, Fin can end up asking multiple questions in a row or rephrasing. You can override the default by ending a guidance rule with your own question — Fin will use that instead of generating its own. More detail in the Guidance best practices article: https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/13975769-fin-guidance-best-practices
3. Note on clarifying questions
The clarifying questions Fin asks are baked into its AI model and can't be directly edited (https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/13975799-faqs). However, you can use Guidance to add specific, deterministic clarification steps (e.g. "If a customer asks about X, always ask which product they're using first") — this gives you more control over when Fin asks something, rather than leaving it up to the AI.
4. Fin Operator for conversation debugging (if you have access)
Fin Operator (https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/15083300-fin-operator-explained) can debug individual conversations and show you exactly why Fin responded the way it did — super useful for this kind of issue. That said, it's currently in early access and requires the Pro add-on to be eligible. Do you have access to it? If so, go to Fin AI Agent > Operator and you can share a conversation for it to diagnose. If not, you can request early access from the same screen (you'll be added to the waitlist). More info in the Fin Operator FAQs: https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/15083634-fin-operator-faqs
Would love to know what your anti-repetition guidance looks like if you want a second pair of eyes — sometimes just sharing the wording helps spot the issue!
+4Hey Amber! Sorry to hear you're stuck on this — here are a few things worth checking:
1. Check for conflicting or overlapping guidance rules
This is the most common cause of Fin rephrasing and circling back with the same answer. If you have multiple guidance rules that touch similar behavior (e.g. clarification + answer style + follow-up), they can interact in unexpected ways. The Fin Guidance best practices doc recommends keeping each rule focused on a single objective — one purpose per rule, no chaining. It also suggests regularly auditing for redundant or contradictory rules and removing them.
2. The "question mark trick" to control follow-up questions
After answering, Fin automatically generates a feedback question (e.g. "Is that what you were looking for?"). If your clarifying question guidance is clashing with this, Fin can end up asking multiple questions in a row or rephrasing. You can override the default by ending a guidance rule with your own question — Fin will use that instead of generating its own. More detail in the Guidance best practices article: https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/13975769-fin-guidance-best-practices
3. Note on clarifying questions
The clarifying questions Fin asks are baked into its AI model and can't be directly edited (https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/13975799-faqs). However, you can use Guidance to add specific, deterministic clarification steps (e.g. "If a customer asks about X, always ask which product they're using first") — this gives you more control over when Fin asks something, rather than leaving it up to the AI.
4. Fin Operator for conversation debugging (if you have access)
Fin Operator (https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/15083300-fin-operator-explained) can debug individual conversations and show you exactly why Fin responded the way it did — super useful for this kind of issue. That said, it's currently in early access and requires the Pro add-on to be eligible. Do you have access to it? If so, go to Fin AI Agent > Operator and you can share a conversation for it to diagnose. If not, you can request early access from the same screen (you'll be added to the waitlist). More info in the Fin Operator FAQs: https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/15083634-fin-operator-faqs
Would love to know what your anti-repetition guidance looks like if you want a second pair of eyes — sometimes just sharing the wording helps spot the issue!
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