Creating an assistant
Add a new assistant
Tap the + button in the top-right corner. Enter a name for your assistant, then tap Save.
Importing a SillyTavern character card
Rikka can import character cards in the standard SillyTavern format, giving you instant access to community-created personas without any manual setup.Choose your file format
Tap Import Tavern PNG to pick a character card image, or Import Tavern JSON to pick a JSON file.
Rikka supports character card spec versions v2 and v3. Importing a card automatically populates the name, system prompt, description, personality, scenario, and first message.
Basic configuration
Identity
Set the assistant’s name and avatar to make it easy to recognise at a glance. Enable Use Assistant Avatar to display the assistant’s avatar in place of the model icon inside the chat.
Model override
Set a Chat Model to pin this assistant to a specific provider and model. Leave it blank to use whatever model is currently selected as the global default.
System prompt
Write the core instructions that define how the assistant thinks and responds. The system prompt is sent at the beginning of every conversation. You can use placeholder variables inside the system prompt.
Tags
Assign tags to organise your assistants. Use the tag filter bar on the Assistants screen to quickly find the one you need.
Key settings reference
Generation settings
Controls response randomness. Values range from
0 (deterministic) to 2 (very creative). Leave unset to use the model’s default.Nucleus sampling threshold. A lower value restricts the model to higher-probability tokens. Leave unset to use the model’s default. Avoid setting both
temperature and topP at the same time.Maximum number of tokens the model may generate in a single response. Leave unset for no explicit cap.
Controls how much chain-of-thought reasoning the model performs before answering.
AUTO lets the model decide.When enabled, the assistant’s response streams token-by-token as it is generated. Disable this if you prefer to receive the complete response at once.
Context and history
The maximum number of recent messages included as conversation history in each request. Set to
0 to include all messages. Reducing this value lowers token usage for long conversations.Preset messages
A list of messages that are always prepended to the conversation before any user input. Use preset messages to inject fixed examples, persona warm-up exchanges, or boilerplate context that every conversation with this assistant should start with.
HTTP overrides
Additional HTTP headers to send with every request made by this assistant. Useful for routing through proxies or satisfying custom authentication requirements.
Extra fields to merge into every request body. Use this to pass provider-specific parameters that Rikka does not expose directly.
Tools and integrations
The MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers this assistant is allowed to call. Tools from servers not in this list are hidden from the model.
Built-in device tools available to this assistant. TimeInfo is included by default, letting the model query the current date and time.
The set of skill names that are active for this assistant. Skills extend what the assistant can do beyond standard chat, such as web search or image generation, depending on what your setup supports.
Appearance
URI of a custom background image shown in the chat view for this assistant. Import a SillyTavern character card to set this automatically.
Opacity of the background image, from
0.0 (invisible) to 1.0 (fully opaque).Switching assistants in chat
Tap the assistant name or avatar shown in the chat toolbar to open a picker. Select any assistant to apply its persona and settings to the current or next conversation. The change takes effect immediately for new messages.Quick Messages
Quick Messages are pre-written message templates you can attach to an assistant and fire off with a single tap during a conversation — ideal for recurring prompts like “summarise the above” or “translate to English”.Create quick messages
Go to Settings → Quick Messages and tap + to create a template with a title and content.
Attach to an assistant
Open the assistant’s Extensions tab, select the Quick Messages sub-tab, and toggle on the messages you want available.
Regex transformers
Regex transformers let you define find-and-replace rules that run on messages before they are displayed or sent. This is useful for sanitising output, reformatting citations, or applying cosmetic changes. Each rule has the following fields:| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A human-readable label for the rule |
| Find pattern | A standard regular expression to match against |
| Replace with | The replacement string (supports capture group references) |
| Scope | Whether the rule applies to User messages, Assistant messages, or both |
| Visual only | When enabled, the replacement is shown in the UI but the original text is still sent to the model |