Set a shared rule’s tone, language and creativity
A shared rule sets what your team replies; its Settings set how it reads. Three controls do the work — reply language, tone and creativity — and you set them once, for everyone the rule reaches.
Members can't change a shared rule, so these settings are how you keep the wording consistent across the team. Open the rule, then open its Settings to adjust them.
- Open the rule
Go to Shared rules and select the rule you want to tune.
- Open Settings
Each shared rule has its own Settings, with reply language, tone and creativity.
- Adjust and test
Set the three controls, then use the rule's Test button to see a sample draft before it reaches your team.
Choose what language the drafts come back in:
- Match the incoming email — the draft answers in whatever language the sender wrote in. Best for mixed or international inboxes.
- A fixed language — every draft for this rule comes back in the language you pick, regardless of the incoming message.
This setting lives on the rule, so a "Holiday hours" rule can always answer in one language while a support rule mirrors the sender.
Tone sets the register of every draft this rule produces. Four options:
- Match the user's voice — keeps each person's drafts sounding like them, while the rule still standardizes the content. The phrasing stays personal; the substance stays on-message.
- Formal-business — measured, professional, polished.
- Warm & friendly — approachable and personable.
- Concise — short and to the point, no padding.
Match the user's voice is the one to reach for when the reply should feel like it came from the individual, not a template. The other three apply a single company tone to everyone the rule reaches.
"Match the user's voice" draws on each teammate's own writing style. For how that voice is learned and tuned, point users to Set your writing voice in the user Help center.
Creativity is a 1–5 slider for how closely the draft sticks to the rule's script versus how freely it adapts to each message:
- 1 — Verbatim: sticks to the script almost word for word. Predictable and tightly controlled.
- 3 — Balanced (recommended): follows the script but adapts naturally to each email. The right default for most rules.
- 5 — Free: most flexible — adapts the most to the specifics of each message.
Lower keeps replies uniform and on-rails; higher lets the draft respond more to the situation in front of it.
For sensitive or legal replies, use a low creativity (1–2) with a Concise or Formal-business tone — the wording stays controlled and consistent. For warm outreach and relationship emails, set Match the user's voice and a higher creativity so each draft sounds genuinely personal.
After changing any of these, run the rule's Test button. A quick sample draft tells you whether the language, tone and creativity land the way you intended — much easier than discovering it across the whole team later. When the wording looks right, the rule is ready to apply to everyone or specific people.