Set system instructions to Multimodal AI Model

This sample shows you how to set system instructions to a Multimodal AI Model

Explore further

For detailed documentation that includes this code sample, see the following:

• Use system instructions

Code sample

Go

Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vertex AI Go API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"

	genai "google.golang.org/genai"
)

// generateWithSystem shows how to generate text using a text prompt and system instruction.
func generateWithSystem(w io.Writer) error {
	ctx := context.Background()

	client, err := genai.NewClient(ctx, &genai.ClientConfig{
		HTTPOptions: genai.HTTPOptions{APIVersion: "v1"},
	})
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to create genai client: %w", err)
	}

	modelName := "gemini-2.5-flash"
	contents := genai.Text("Why is the sky blue?")
	config := &genai.GenerateContentConfig{
		SystemInstruction: &genai.Content{
			Parts: []*genai.Part{
				{Text: "You're a language translator. Your mission is to translate text in English to French."},
			},
		},
	}

	resp, err := client.Models.GenerateContent(ctx, modelName, contents, config)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to generate content: %w", err)
	}

	respText := resp.Text()

	fmt.Fprintln(w, respText)

	// Example response:
	// Pourquoi le ciel est-il bleu ?

	return nil
}

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vertex AI Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

import com.google.genai.Client;
import com.google.genai.types.Content;
import com.google.genai.types.GenerateContentConfig;
import com.google.genai.types.GenerateContentResponse;
import com.google.genai.types.HttpOptions;
import com.google.genai.types.Part;

public class TextGenerationWithSystemInstruction {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String modelId = "gemini-2.5-flash";
    generateContent(modelId);
  }

  // Generates text with text and system instruction input
  public static String generateContent(String modelId) {
    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
    // once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
    try (Client client =
        Client.builder()
            .location("global")
            .vertexAI(true)
            .httpOptions(HttpOptions.builder().apiVersion("v1").build())
            .build()) {

      GenerateContentConfig config =
          GenerateContentConfig.builder()
              .systemInstruction(
                  Content.fromParts(
                      Part.fromText("You're a language translator."),
                      Part.fromText("Your mission is to translate text in English to French.")))
              .build();

      GenerateContentResponse response =
          client.models.generateContent(modelId, "Why is the sky blue?", config);

      System.out.print(response.text());
      // Example response:
      // Pourquoi le ciel est-il bleu ?
      return response.text();
    }
  }
}

Node.js

Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vertex AI Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

const {GoogleGenAI} = require('@google/genai');

const GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT = process.env.GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT;
const GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION = process.env.GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION || 'global';

async function generateContent(
  projectId = GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT,
  location = GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION
) {
  const ai = new GoogleGenAI({
    vertexai: true,
    project: projectId,
    location: location,
  });

  const prompt = `
  User input: I like bagels.
  Answer:
  `;

  const response = await ai.models.generateContent({
    model: 'gemini-2.5-flash',
    contents: prompt,
    config: {
      systemInstruction: [
        'You are a language translator.',
        'Your mission is to translate text in English to French.',
      ],
    },
  });

  console.log(response.text);

  return response.text;
}

Python

Before trying this sample, follow the Python setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vertex AI Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

from google import genai
from google.genai.types import GenerateContentConfig, HttpOptions

client = genai.Client(http_options=HttpOptions(api_version="v1"))
response = client.models.generate_content(
    model="gemini-2.5-flash",
    contents="Why is the sky blue?",
    config=GenerateContentConfig(
        system_instruction=[
            "You're a language translator.",
            "Your mission is to translate text in English to French.",
        ]
    ),
)
print(response.text)
# Example response:
# Pourquoi le ciel est-il bleu ?

What's next

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