SillyTavern lorebook order for beginners
People search sillytavern lorebook order when they want more than one “layer” of lore—for example your persona, the character, the world, old memories, and optional pop-culture refs—and need those pieces to show up in a predictable sequence in the prompt.
A common question (discussed on Reddit: lorebook / world order) is: Can I split these into separate lorebooks and control which block is inserted before another? Yes, in practice you do it with per-entry settings—especially Insertion Order—inside World Info, plus where you attach lore (global / character / persona / chat). This note is plain-language; behavior can vary by ST version, so always check the official doc.
Not official Silly Tavern documentation. See World Info on docs.sillytavern.app.
The one-minute mental model
- Keywords decide whether an entry fires.
- Insertion Order (a number on each entry) helps decide where that entry sits relative to other activated lore in the World Info bundle for this reply.
- Token budget still wins: if you run out of room, later rules may drop entries—so ordering only matters among entries that actually fit.
Official wording for Insertion Order lives here: Insertion Order (World Info).
Insertion Order, explained without jargon
Think of every activated lore entry as a sticky note you are about to paste into a stack that will be read by the model.
- Smaller order number → the note is placed earlier in that lore stack (more “background” in the WI section).
- Larger order number → the note is placed closer to the end of that lore stack, which—per upstream docs—usually means more influence on the very next model reply.
Concrete example matching the Reddit thread’s intent:
- You want facts about you and the bot to appear before a block of “past chat memories” lore when both fire.
- Give persona + character entries lower order numbers (e.g. 100 / 150).
- Give memory entries higher numbers (e.g. 400).
- Keep world and misc media entries in the middle (e.g. 200 / 300) if that matches how you want the model to weigh them.
You do not need five separate universes of mystery—often it is enough to use clear keywords and consistent order bands (100s for people, 200s for world, 400s for memories, etc.).
Do I need separate “worlds” (World Info files)?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
- One World Info file with many entries works if you are happy managing everything in one editor.
- Multiple files help when you want reuse: e.g. one global world bible, one character-bound book, one chat-only book for a single RP arc. SillyTavern can combine them; how they merge depends on your lore insertion strategy (global vs character first, etc.). A fuller map lives in our World Info / lorebook guide.
Binding lore to context (character / persona / chat) is another way to “segregate” concerns without touching Chat Completion JSON by hand.
Insertion position and depth (the extra knob)
Beyond order numbers, entries can target where in the prompt structure they land (depth / role-shaped slots). That is how you can move a block closer to “system,” “user,” or “assistant” regions—useful once you are comfortable with prompt layout. Start with Insertion Order; add position tweaks when a simple sort is not enough. Details remain in the same World Info doc set.
Checklist for new users
- Split by purpose (you / bot / world / memories / memes) using keywords so unrelated entries do not fire every turn.
- Reserve number ranges for each purpose so you are not renumbering everything weekly.
- Test in a short chat: mention a keyword from each layer and read ST’s World Info / trigger tooling (if your build exposes it) to see what actually activated.
- Watch the budget: ordering does not help if the model never sees the entry because the WI budget was exhausted.
See also
Browse PNG + embedded JSON on Mac with Sillycard.
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