> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.poly.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Turn-taking recipes

> `instructions` text for turn-taking behavior: waiting for a complete sequence, offering a fallback when a caller's stuck, and reacting to sounds a transcript would miss.

Each of these is `instructions` text, not a new field or event. The reasoning behind them is in [Prompting turn-taking behavior](/dialog-rsn-1/prompt-guide#turn-taking).

## Waiting for a complete sequence

**Don't respond to a partial answer just because a pause ended the turn.** Tell Dialog-RSN-1 what "complete" looks like and to keep listening until it gets there.

```text instructions: wait for a full answer theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
The caller may have more than one thing to tell you, for example several
items in an order or more than one date to check. A pause after the first
one is not the end of what they're saying. If you're not sure they're
finished, ask "anything else?" rather than treating a pause as the end of
the turn.
```

## Offering a fallback

**Repeating the same question a third time isn't a strategy.** Give Dialog-RSN-1 a named exit before it needs one.

```text instructions: offer a fallback after repeated struggle theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
Ask for the caller's postcode to look up their account. If they can't
provide it clearly after two attempts, stop asking for it and offer to look
their account up a different way instead, for example by phone number or
account reference. Don't ask for the postcode a third time.
```

## Acknowledging what's not a word

**A sneeze in the caller's turn is worth a word, not a change of subject.** Let Dialog-RSN-1 note it in passing and answer what the caller said.

```text instructions: react briefly to non-speech sounds theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}}
If the caller sneezes, coughs, or laughs while they're speaking,
acknowledge it briefly, for example "bless you," then answer what
they said.
```

This works on the caller's turn only. While a reply is playing, Dialog-RSN-1 can't add words to it: a sound it judges to be no speech is ignored and the reply plays on, and anything it judges to be speech interrupts the reply. Instructions shape that judgment. A line such as "a cough or a laugh while you're talking is not the caller taking a turn" makes it less likely to stop for one.

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Prompt guide" icon="wand-magic-sparkles" href="/dialog-rsn-1/prompt-guide#turn-taking">
    Why each of these works, and what prompting can't change about turn-taking.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Reference" icon="file-lines" href="/dialog-rsn-1/reference#the-session-object">
    Where `instructions` sits in the session object.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>