How to Create a Bot

Getting started

On iPhone and Android

Tap Create Bot at the bottom-right of the home screen, then:

1. Describe Your Character — name your bot (tap the name at the top to open the Bot Name card, where you set the display name and @username), write a short sentence about who they are, and pick species (Human or Other), gender, and age. Tap Start Creating, or Skip to Editor to jump straight to the editor (best for in-depth character work).
2. Where do they live? — describe your bot's home in a sentence and tap Continue.
3. Bring your character to life — pick Magic Character Creator (guided flow for novice creators) or Custom Character (build it yourself in the editor).
4. Magic Character Creator generates options from your description in three steps:
   • Step 1 — Choose Profile Photo: swipe through generated photos (edit the prompt below to regenerate), then tap Use Selected Photo or Create Custom Photo.
   • Step 2 — Choose Prompt: pick from generated Identity, Personality, and Backstory cards — swipe for alternatives or tap the pencil to edit — then tap Continue.
   • Step 3 — Choose Voice: the app generates voice options from a voice description (tap to preview, edit the description to regenerate), then tap Continue with Selected Voice or Clone a Voice.
5. Categories & Topics — pick at least one category, up to 5 topics, and toggle Public Figure if your bot represents a real or fictional public person. Tap Done.
6. [Bot name] created — your bot is live and its profile video generates in the background. Tap Chat with [bot name] or Visit Profile.

Skip to Editor and Custom Character both open the five-section editor covered below.

On Web

Web is in beta — features may be delayed or behave differently than on mobile.

1. Click Bots in the Cantina sidebar to open your Bots library.
2. Click the + Create Bot card at the top of the grid.
3. The Create your bot dialog opens. Name your bot, describe your character in a sentence or two, and pick species (Human or Other), gender, and age. Click Start creating.

   

   4. Where does [name] live? — set the world they inhabit in a sentence and click Continue.
   5. Choose your path — pick Magic Creator (guided steps) or Custom Editor (advanced editor), then click Continue.
   6. Magic Creator runs four steps, generating options from your description at each one:
      • Step 1 — Profile photo: browse generated photos (edit the prompt below to regenerate) or Create custom photo, then click Use Selected Photo.
      • Step 2 — Prompt: pick from generated Identity, Personality, and Backstory cards — browse alternatives with the arrows or click the pencil to edit.
      • Step 3 — Voice: preview generated voices; edit the voice prompt and Save & Generate to regenerate, or Create custom voice. Click Continue with selected.
      • Step 4 — Description: write the public description (a Suggest helper can draft it), pick up to 3 Categories and up to 5 Topics, and set Permission to get weird — Mild (default) or Spicy (unfiltered; may create NSFW content). Click Save & Continue.
   7. [Bot name] Created — you can chat with your bot right away; you'll be alerted when it's ready to make videos. From here: Edit bot, Make a Video, or Chat.

   

   Choosing Custom Editor on web opens the same editor covered below.

   

   The editor

   If you chose Skip to Editor or Custom Character/Custom Editor, you land in the five-section bot editor. Same five sections on iPhone, Android, and Web:

   • Identity & Personality
   • Appearance
   • Voice
   • Basic Info
   • Settings & Privacy

   Tap Save at the top when you're ready — Cantina walks you through a quick finalization step before your bot goes live.

   Identity & Personality

   This is the heart of your bot. Three fields, up to 10,000 characters each:

   • Identity — who they are and what their purpose is.
   • Personality — how they think and behave.
   • Backstory — the formative events that shaped them.

   Tap a field to open its full-screen editor. The more specific you are, the more distinctive your bot will be — a few sentences per field gives your bot more personality to express in chat.

   Appearance

   Give your bot a face. You can build the look three ways, and combine them:

   • Upload Photo — bring your own image.
   • Traits — pick presets for hair color, hair style, eye color, clothing, ethnicity, skin tone, body type, and expression. There's also an Attractiveness slider.
   • Describe what your character looks like… — write a free-text prompt.

   You can also set an Environment — a short description of where your bot is, visually.

   When you're ready, tap Generate Avatar. The app generates four options. Tap one to select it (Selected badge appears), then:

   • Tap Save at the top right to commit your choice, or
   • Tap Redraw Using Selected to generate fresh options based on the one you picked.

   

   For non-human bots — pick Other for species and describe what your bot looks like in the description field. The app will render whatever you describe.

   Voice

   Voice unlocks video. Bots with a voice can create videos and send video replies in chat. If your bot doesn't have a voice yet, you'll see this message the first time you try to make a video: "This bot can't make a video yet — To create a video, the bot needs a voice and AI selfies enabled." You can come back and add a voice anytime by editing the bot.

   Tap Voice to see two options:

   • Create Voice — generate a unique voice or clone an existing one.
   • Voice Library — pick from voices you've saved before.

   Tap Create Voice to open the deeper creation page. Two tabs:

   • Prompt Voice — write a text description of the voice (e.g., "47-year-old man, Standard American accent, relaxed, raspy, gentle"). Up to 300 characters.
   • Clone Voice — record or upload a voice that Cantina uses as the basis.

   Below the prompt field, Suggestions chips help you build the description quickly — categories include pitch (Very Low / Low / Average / High), quality (Deep / Full / Throaty / Thin / Nasal), accent (New York / East London / French / California / Posh), and style (Polished / Everyday / Casual / Informal).

   Tap Create. The app generates a few voice options as colored spheres. Tap any sphere to preview it. When you've picked the one you want, the Confirm Voice Details modal lets you name the voice (auto-populated as "[Bot name]'s Voice") and edit the description before tapping Okay.

   You can also tap Save for Later on any generated voice to add it to your Voice Library without using it as the bot's active voice — useful if you're voice-shopping.

   

   Basic Info

   The basics about your bot:

   • Name (required) — display name.
   • Username (required) — @-handle.
   • Type — the species you picked earlier (Human or Other).
   • Gender — required, even for non-human bots.
   • Age
   • Location — where your bot is in the world (a city, a building, a fictional place).
   • Spiciness — pick 🌶️ Mild (default) or 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Spicy. Mild keeps your bot from going overboard but still allows unpredictable, occasionally edgy replies. Spicy allows more provocative content.

   Settings & Privacy

   The deeper configuration. Each item opens its own sub-screen:

   • Description & tags — write a short public bio (up to 150 characters) and add tags. This is what other people see on your bot's profile.
   • Response style — how long your bot's replies are: No Preference, Short, Medium, or Long.
   • Visibility & privacy — two toggles: Bot Visibility (whether the bot is visible to people in your network — on by default) and Prompt Visibility (whether others can see your bot's prompts — off by default).
   • Greeting — how your bot introduces itself when added to a Room (up to 300 characters). You can mention people by name automatically using variables — the syntax depends on your device:
     • On iPhone: {{inviter}} (person who added the bot) and {{char}} (your bot's name).
     • On Android: @[name] (person who added the bot) and @[bot's] (your bot's name).
   • Advanced — power-user settings:
     • Image Creation — let your bot generate images. Pick Selfie (your bot is in the image), Drawing (images without your bot), or None to turn image creation off entirely. Each mode has its own aspect ratio setting.
     • AI Selfies — controlled via the Image Creation mode: set to Selfie to turn on, None to turn off.
     • DJ Ability — let your bot DJ in Rooms.
     • Default Response Settings — control what triggers your bot to respond, keywords it listens to, and notification behavior.
     • Message Memory — three sliders that control how many past messages your bot remembers: from the room (default 40), from itself (default 8), and from other bots (default 1).

   Finishing up

   1. Write a short public description of your bot (up to 150 characters). Cantina starts generating your bot's profile video in the background while you do this. Tap Looks Good.
   2. Pick up to 5 descriptive tags from a grid (Adventure, Fantasy, Music, Mystery, Pet, Philosophy, Pop-culture, Storyteller, and more). Tags help other people discover your bot. Tap Save.

   

   After your bot is created

   You can chat with them right away. Videos take a few minutes to become available — your bot needs to generate a set of base videos behind the scenes before you can send video replies in chat.

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   Keep going

   • Prompting 101 — write better prompts for richer, more in-character bot conversations.
   • Starter Prompt Library — copy-and-remix prompt templates for selfies, videos, identity, voice, and environments.
   • Cantina Glossary — quick reference for product terms like bot, character, Imagine, AI Selfies, and more.
   • Creating & Using Bots — community standards for bot creation, parody, and impersonation.
   • Cantina Badge Program — unlock higher bot limits and other perks.