Custom Team System Message

Replace the generated team system message with a custom message and role.

custom_system_message.py
"""
Custom Team System Message
=========================

Demonstrates setting a custom system message, role, and including the team
name in context.
"""

from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.models.openai import OpenAIResponses
from agno.team import Team

# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Create Members
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
coach = Agent(
    name="Coaching Agent",
    model=OpenAIResponses(id="gpt-5-mini"),
    instructions=[
        "Offer practical, concise improvements.",
        "Keep advice actionable and realistic.",
    ],
)


# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Create Team
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
coaching_team = Team(
    name="Team Coach",
    model=OpenAIResponses(id="gpt-5-mini"),
    members=[coach],
    instructions=["Focus on high-leverage behavior changes."],
    system_message=(
        "You are a performance coach for remote teams. "
        "Every answer must end with one concrete next action."
    ),
    system_message_role="system",
    add_name_to_context=True,
)


# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Run Team
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
if __name__ == "__main__":
    coaching_team.print_response(
        "How should my team improve meeting quality this week?",
        stream=True,
    )

Full system-message override

A custom system_message replaces the generated team system message. In this recipe, instructions and add_name_to_context=True are not appended to it. To include the team's name and focus, put them directly in the custom string:

coaching_team.system_message = (
    "You are Team Coach, a performance coach for remote teams. "
    "Focus on practical behavior changes. "
    "Every answer must end with one concrete next action."
)

Use the normal instructions path instead if you want Agno to build its default team context.

Run the Example

Set up your virtual environment

uv venv --python 3.12
source .venv/bin/activate

Install dependencies

uv pip install -U agno openai

Export your OpenAI API key

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your_openai_api_key_here"

Run the example

Save the code above as custom_system_message.py, then run:

python custom_system_message.py

Full source: cookbook/03_teams/09_context_management/custom_system_message.py