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Traversal works out of the box — you don’t need to configure anything to get accurate investigations. Customization is the last-mile layer on top: when you have opinions about how Traversal should investigate or write things up, you set them once and Traversal applies them to every investigation, instead of re-typing them each time. There are three ways to customize:
  • Personalization — your own instructions, applied to every investigation you run: Slack (channels and DMs) and the web app.
  • Channel custom instructions — instructions applied to every investigation in a Slack channel, no matter who runs it.
  • Worker custom instructions — instructions applied to one Worker, or to future Workers created by an auto-deploy rule.
None can override Traversal’s security guardrails or its evidence and citation rules.

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What to include

Anything you’d otherwise find yourself repeating — the preferences and hard-won context that apply to you or your team:
  • Investigation steps — where to look first, or what to rule out. “Always check the deploys dashboard and recent releases before anything else.”
  • Known failure modes — the usual suspects for your systems. “Latency spikes on checkout are usually the payments provider rate-limiting at peak — check that first.”
  • Runbooks and references — point Traversal at the docs and dashboards you trust. “For database incidents, follow our failover runbook: <link>.”
  • Response format — how you want findings written up. “Lead with customer impact, then the root cause with evidence. Keep it to a few bullets.”
  • Priorities — what matters most. “Prioritize customer-facing services; always call out anything touching checkout.”
Keep them specific and durable — standing preferences, not one-off asks.

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Personalization

Set your instructions in Settings → Personalization, under Instructions for Traversal. They follow you across every investigation you start, in Slack or the web app.

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Channel custom instructions

Set a channel’s instructions in Settings → Channel management, under Custom instructions. They apply to every investigation in that channel — from anyone, including auto-triggered ones — so they’re ideal for alert channels, auto-trigger channels, or a shared debugging channel where the whole team wants consistent output.

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Worker custom instructions

Set instructions when you deploy a Worker, from Edit Worker on its detailed view, or on an auto-deploy rule so every future matching channel inherits them. Worker instructions are the only layer that can shape when a Worker acts, not just how it investigates — which alerts to ignore, which to always investigate fresh, when to escalate, who to notify. They also cover where to look first, what to prioritize, and how to format an output such as a post-mortem. See Deploy and manage Workers for examples.

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How they work together

Personalization and channel instructions shape investigations: in a Slack channel both apply, and the channel’s take priority if they conflict; in a DM or the web app, only your personal instructions apply. Worker instructions shape the Worker — its judgment about when to engage and what to say. If you have a Worker in a channel, that’s the layer to reach for when you want to change its behavior. None of these layers can override Traversal’s security guardrails or its evidence and citation rules.