You may find it easier to start with an existing template from another model and simply edit it for your needs! For example, we could take the LLaMA template above and add "[ASST]" and "[/ASST]" to assistant messages: {% for message in messages %} {% if message['role'] == 'user' %} {{ bos_token + '[INST] ' + message['content'].strip() + ' [/INST]' }} {% elif message['role'] == 'system' %} {{ '<>\\n' + message['content'].strip() + '\\n<>\\n\\n' }} {% elif message['role'] == 'assistant' %} {{ '[ASST] ' + message['content'] + ' [/ASST]' + eos_token }} {% endif %} {% endfor %} Now, simply set the tokenizer.chat_template attribute.