Bot Creator Playbooks

The best part of building a bot is taking an idea you love and making it unmistakably yours. It might begin with a role, a mood, a relationship, or a type of story you want to tell.

This guide helps you find that creative spark, separate it from the recognizable details around it, and build a name, look, voice, personality, backstory, and world that belong to your bot.

This is general creative guidance, not legal advice. Rights can vary by country and by the specific work or version. All bots and AI-generated media must follow Cantina's Community Guidelines, Generative AI Image Policy, and Creating & Using Bots.

Start with what drew you to the idea

Before you build, ask yourself: What drew me to this concept?

Maybe it is the confidence, the mystery, the humor, the relationship, or the kind of story the character makes possible. That is the part worth carrying forward.

Describe that creative spark without using a specific character's name. For example:

A retired librarian who secretly DJs every weekend and wants one last sold-out show before her family finds out.

Now you have room to invent. Give the idea its own name, history, visual design, voice, relationships, and world.

A useful formula is:

Role + unexpected trait + immediate want

If your first description still depends on another character, that is not a dead end. Move one level back, find the broader vibe or tension underneath it, and start there.

Separate the inspiration from the recognizable details

Sometimes a bot begins with a character, person, or world you already love. That can tell you something useful about the experience you want to create. The next step is to identify the recognizable details and replace them with choices of your own.

Look across the whole character, not only one field in the Bot Builder. Familiarity can come from:

• the same name or a near-match
• a recognizable costume, face, silhouette, color scheme, or prop
• the same fictional world, backstory, relationships, or role
• signature phrases, voice, behavior, or personality presented as the same character
• a real person's likeness without their consent or another legal right to use it

If several of those details point to one existing character or identifiable person, the bot may be flagged or removed. Treat that as a signal to return to the concept, not as the end of the idea.

Try these curiosity-first questions:

• What drew you to this concept?
• Who is this character at their core?
• What if you rebuilt it from scratch with the same vibe?
• What is one recognizable trait you could swap for something you invent?

Each new choice gives the character more room to become yours.

What parody actually means

Parody has a specific creative purpose. It transforms an existing work to comment on, critique, or meaningfully play with it. The commentary is part of the idea.

A changed spelling, an “inspired by” label, a fan tribute, or a familiar look and personality do not automatically create parody.

Please note: Parody is not an exact formula. Even when something may technically qualify as parody, the legal protection is narrow and decided case by case. Calling a bot “parody” does not guarantee that every borrowed name, likeness, design, phrase, or other element is permitted.

When commentary is not the point—or when you are unsure—you still have a strong path forward: return to the part you love, rebuild from that same vibe, and make the character original from the start. Original work remains the clearest and most dependable path.

Public domain: build from the source

Some older stories, characters, and works are in the public domain because copyright protection expired or never applied. They can give you a rich starting point for something new. Public-domain status can vary by country, and it applies to the specific work or version you are using.

An old source story may be in the public domain while a later movie's costume, dialogue, music, artwork, or character design is still protected.

Ancient mythology, folklore, and older literature can be useful starting points. Build from the original source material, then create your own interpretation through the visual design, voice, setting, and details you choose.

Public domain does not mean every version is free to use. Check the source, the version, and the country before you rely on it.

Build the character only you could make

1. Start with a role, traits, and tension

Decide what your character does, how they behave, and what makes their situation interesting.

A retired librarian who secretly DJs after hours.

2. Give them a distinct name and point of view

Choose a name that belongs to this character. Then decide how they see the world, what they value, and how they speak.

Mara Vale is precise, dryly funny, and always counts beats under her breath when she is nervous.

3. Build their world and backstory

Give the character a specific place, history, relationships, and wants. Details turn a type into a person.

She lives above a closed record shop, has not spoken to her daughter in two years, and keeps a handwritten list of every song that ever changed her life.

4. Layer in the details only you would choose

The goal is not to make the character less like something else. It is to make the character more fully itself. Keep adding specific choices until the idea could only be yours.

Check the name and the look separately

Creators often update one layer first. That is a good start. Then check the other layer.

• New name, familiar design: Ask which visual details you can reinvent so the character has its own silhouette, clothing, face, and visual language.
• New look, familiar identity: Ask which parts of the name, world, backstory, or role still belong to the original reference, then create your own.

Think of this as a two-part creative check. Make the name, design, personality, backstory, voice, and world support the same original idea.

If you have a specific popular character/person in mind, ask yourself:

• Can I describe this bot without naming another character?
• What does this character want, and what makes that want specific?
• Which parts of the name, world, backstory, appearance, and voice came from me?
• What is one familiar trait I could swap for something unexpected?
• Would the character still be interesting if no one recognized the inspiration?

Use your answers as a new prompt. Every specific choice moves the bot closer to a character that stands on its own.

Rebuild with the same vibe

When a character still feels familiar, keep the part you love and rebuild the rest from scratch.

For example, “a secretive night-shift guardian protecting a small town” is a broad concept with plenty of room to invent. Ask:

• Why do they work at night?
• What do they protect the town from?
• What are they hiding?
• Who depends on them?
• What do they look and sound like?
• What choice will they eventually have to make?

You are not giving up the idea. You are uncovering the version that belongs to you.

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Keep going

• Bot Building Basics — shape your bot's appearance, voice, and personality.
• How to Create a Bot — the full Bot Builder walkthrough.
• Generative AI Image Policy — rights, likeness, and media rules.
• Creating & Using Bots — community standards for bot creation, parody, satire, and impersonation.

Learn how to build a bot in Cantina by following these instructions. 

The Basics

Conceptualizing Your Bot

You don't have to follow this structure to conceptualize a strong bot. It's just a framework to help you brainstorm concepts and flesh out ideas that may feel half-baked. Once you have a concept for your character, you're ready to build them.

The Bot Builder

Let's go through the three pillars, starting with personality.

Identity & Personality

This section of the editor holds three distinct prompt fields. Each one shapes how your bot shows up in chat.

Identity

Who they are and what their purpose is. Their name, role, and what makes them them. Keep it tight.

Personality

How they think and behave. The Magic Bot Creator drafts a starting personality for you, and you can sharpen it any time.

Personality is set by a prompt: a few sentences you write about who your bot is and how they act. Every time your bot speaks in chat, Cantina reads your prompt and uses it to shape what they say.

Start by describing your character. Write to them, not about them. Say "You are…" instead of "They are…":

You are a retired Navy SEAL turned full-time motivational podcaster. You scream encouragement at people to become better like you. You often mistake pain for self-improvement and are constantly putting yourself through needlessly and ridiculously uncomfortable situations to 'make yourself better'.

It helps to include details about how your bot speaks. What kinds of phrases do they use? Do they have a signature opener? Do they end sentences a certain way?

You speak like a working-class Italian guy from New Jersey. You don't use big words or abstract words, instead you always use short sentences with simple, concrete words. You talk in questions for emphasis: "You hungry? You better be." You like to add Italian-American slang sometimes: "Forget about it!" "Gabagool", "Madonn!"

There's no right or wrong way to do this. Add any detail that feels true to your character: how they think, where they grew up, what they love, what they hate. Prompting 101 goes deeper on writing strong prompts if you want techniques and examples to copy.

Once your bot exists, chat with them. Like what they said? Add more of it to the prompt. Don't like something? Write a line telling them to avoid it. The prompt grows with the bot.

You're the world expert in how your bot should act. Be specific.

Backstory

The formative events that shaped your bot. Optional, but it adds depth. A bot with a backstory has more to draw from in chat.

Appearance

Your bot's appearance is controlled by the avatar you set. This image is used throughout Cantina to generate other images and videos of your character, so it's worth getting one you like.

You can build the avatar three ways, and you can combine them. Upload Photo lets you bring your own image. Select Traits lets you pick presets for hair, eyes, clothing, ethnicity, skin tone, body type, and expression. Describe what your character looks like is a free-text prompt: be specific. Aspects like hairstyle, ethnicity, and photorealistic versus animated are all things you can control by prompting for them.

When you're ready, tap Generate Avatar. The app generates four options. Tap one to select it, then either save your choice or tap Redraw Using Selected to generate fresh options based on the one you picked.

If it doesn't look quite right, try adding to your prompt or editing what you've written, then generate another version. Keep tweaking until it feels right.

You can change your bot's avatar any time by editing the bot.

Voice

Your bot's voice is what they sound like in chat, in videos, and in any Room they're part of.

You have two options for creating a voice. Prompt a voice lets you describe it in text. Clone a voice lets you upload an audio file or record one directly using your phone's microphone.

If you describe a voice in text, the same principle applies as prompting a strong personality or appearance: be descriptive. Do they have an accent? Are they young or old? Nasal? Angry and authoritative? Whatever you're looking for in a voice, include it.

Pro-tip: Complete the Voice section last, after both Appearance and Personality, and Cantina will auto-generate a high-quality voice prompt drawing details from your bot's personality and appearance. These auto-generated prompts are often very helpful.

A voice unlocks video creation. Once your bot has a voice set, they can make videos and send video replies in chat.

Advanced Settings

As you refine your bot, dive into more specific settings to tailor them to a distinct character. From adding creative flair with DJ Ability or Image Creation, to shaping how they show up in a Room through Greeting or Response Style, these settings let your bot truly come to life. Each setting has a default, so you may not need to adjust it right away.

When creating bots on Cantina, make sure they adhere to our policies.

Keep going

• How to Create a Bot — the step-by-step UI walkthrough.
• Prompting 101 — foundations of writing strong prompts.
• Starter Prompt Library — copy-and-remix templates for identity, voice, environments.
• Cantina Glossary — quick reference for product terms.
• Creating & Using Bots — community standards for bot creation, parody, and impersonation.