Part I · Foundations · Chapter 6

Token Budgets

How much is too much.

Every word you write in your character profile uses tokens. The more tokens your profile uses, the less room the AI has for actual conversation memory. This matters especially in longer chats.

FieldRecommended LengthWhat Goes Here
Description1 — 2 sentences (under 25 words)Name, age, occupation, 2 — 3 key traits.
Personality3 — 5 sentencesCore traits plus how they show up in behavior. Include humor style, boundaries, specific interests.
Backstory80 — 200 wordsFormative events, current situation, emotional wounds, current worries.

General rules

  • Under 500 words total across all three fields is the sweet spot for most characters.
  • 500 — 800 words is fine for complex characters. The AI handles it but conversation memory gets shorter.
  • Over 1,000 wordsis pushing it. Trim anything that won't affect how the character talks or behaves.
Trust the system
Wollo generates dozens of behavioral fields from your inputs — speech patterns, humor profile, imperfection patterns, laughter style, all of it. You don't need to specify any of that manually. Write the essentials and trust the system to build the rest.