
Welcome my concise overview of my current SillyTavern setup. My setup sets out to minimize the amount of slop (llmisms) you get with models, improve the quality of your responses exponentially and, to work out of the box without many tweaks needed afterwards. I've set out to keep this preset as minimal and unbloated as possible. The average the token usage per response I've seen varies between 5000 and 10000 (not including the token cost of the chatbots or lorebooks I use).
This guide assumes you're a PC user and already somewhat know your way around SillyTavern and have a fresh default copy of it already set up. This preset has been tested and geared towards bigger models like DeepSeek or GLM, and as such it hasn't really been tested on smaller/local models, but from my limited testing, it could still work.
I won't go into providers in this guide since they're extremely subjective, and I assume you're familiar enough with SillyTavern to have your own providers already set up.
That said, let us begin.
My setup is divided into 4 main parts - the Lorebook, the Extensions, the Default Author's Note and the Chat Completion Preset.. The Lorebook and the Extensions are largely the meat of it. The Author's Note and CC Preset are something you can just set up the first time and then promptly forget about.
The Lorebook
Links to the Lorebook: https://chub.ai/lorebooks/biguswigus/biguspreset-v2-79857df2a26b or https://file.garden/aZyRM_7FZklyvjbb/%F0%9F%A7%99BigusPreset%F0%9F%A7%99V2.1.json
What it does:
The Worldinfo entries of this lorebook are all set to Constant and are at Depth 0. This basically means that they'll activate constantly with every response, and inject instructions into the context in the same way a traditional Chat Completion preset would. The instructions serve to steer away your model from performing an agentic/assistant role and instead veer towards being much more suitable for roleplay.

The Lorebook has a bunch of optional entries for your own preferences, but by default the ones you'll find activated are all that you need. I especially recommend putting on the π§ Thinking Mode as it gives your chatbots a lot more agency, goals and just makes them smarter and more nuanced in general by adding a hidden thinking tab that only shows up if you decide to edit a chatbot's message.
If you choose to combine it with the Recast Extension (as listed below) then you won't have to worry about the Thinking portion diluting your context, as it tends to remove it when it makes its corrections of a response. So essentially, it synergizes with that extension to make your responses A LOT better.
The Extensions You'll Need for SillyTavern
Guided Generations by Samueras
https://github.com/Samueras/GuidedGenerations-Extension
What it does:
Allows you to include instructions for your chatbot's next response. It also allows you to attach trackers to each response to keep track of the consistency (surroundings, clothing states, etc).
I mostly use the first feature and don't personally use the latter.

Pictured above are the settings of Guided Generations that you can find in the Extensions menu. I highly recommend toggling Show Guided Continue, Guided Response and Guided Swipe on.
It basically adds shortcuts for these buttons next to the buttons you make your responses with.
How I use it:

I use Guided Generations for two main things - firstly, to control the length of responses that I want the model to generate, and secondly to direct the bot to do whatever I want, as if I was a scene director.
It's handy for forcing the model to do specific stuff. I typically just attach the line below to the response, and seperate it by a line with whatever director instructions I have for the bot.
Beyond that, the extension isn't that much complicated. I don't personally use any of its other features since the rest of my preset does the job of that stuff already.
Recast by closure / p7error
https://github.com/closuretxt/recast-post-processing
What it does:
Once a chatbot has generated its response, this extension runs the response through a pipeline of various instructions and essentially rewrites the response depending on whatever instructions you gave it.
This is the main extension I have been using to remove the slop in my chats and to fix the formatting to follow whatever I want it to.

Attached below is my Recast presets, organized into seperate entries. Do know that the order of the entries does matter - I recommend putting the ones that add new stuff to the response at the beginning, and the quality-assurance entries at the end. Or if you're just lazy, follow the same order that I put them in here.
To edit your presets, just go into Extension Settings and you'll find them under Recast.
All you have to do is copy the prompt text and put the entries where they belong. Context length doesn't really matter but mine I have set to 5 on all entries.

Character Behavior Validator
Lewdinator
(I recommend leaving this off and only turning it on when you want spicier NSFW scenes)
Prose Rhythm
Slop Remover
Timeline Memory by unkarelian
https://github.com/unkarelian/timeline-memory
What it does:
This is the memory extension I use. It adds a button that allows you to close off a part of a chat up to a certain point - where it then runs a summarization of events up to that "chapter" and then stores that summary in the context. It's simple to use, easy to set up and it even includes a tutorial UI so I barely even have to explain it here.

Extra extensions I use that are nice to have but not necessary.
- Rewrite by splitclover
https://github.com/splitclover/rewrite-extension
Basically, it allows you to have the model rewrite or modify whatever sections of text you highlight in a response. - Dialogue Colorizer by Xanadusworks
https://github.com/XanadusWorks/SillyTavern-Dialogue-Colorizer
Gives you the option of setting the colour of a character's dialogue with an RGB value. Especially handy for groupchats. - TypefaceR by babysworld
https://github.com/b4bysw0rld/SillyTavern-TypefaceR
Gives you the option of changing the font of your text/dialogue without having to modify the css of SillyTavern's interface. You can literally use any font you have downloaded on your system with it. - World Info Bulk Mover by leandrojofre
https://github.com/leandrojofre/SillyTavern-WI-Bulk-Mover
Allows you to move numerous world info entries at the same time. Very useful and convenient if you're looking to make your own lorebooks. - Narrator by welvet
https://github.com/welvet/SillyTavern-Narrator
Adds a button to your toolbar that allows the model to generate suggestions on the next step in the story. I barely use it, but its nice to have on backup if you've got writer's block.
The Default Author's Note
What it does:
The Author's Note mostly serves to more consistently reinforce existing instructions if you're using the Lorebook. I have my Author's note set to In-Chat and Depth 0 and as User.
Below is a guide on how to set it up so your Author's Note is set to show up like this by default without you having to manually set it for every new chat.

You don't have to tweak any of the guidelines, but you can change the Format the next response to suit your preferences.
That's it.
The Chat Completion Preset
JSON file if you're too lazy to set it up manually: https://file.garden/aZyRM_7FZklyvjbb/%F0%9F%9F%A1WhimsicalPreset%20Chat%20Completion%20Preset.json

Just import it by pressing the button shown and selecting the JSON file.
The CC preset is essentially the same as the default one SillyTavern provides, but there are some small differences.
Under Continue nudge: I've put this as the prompt:
I have my Character Names behaviour set to Default, Squash System Messages On, Continue Postfix to New Line, Request Model Reasoning Off and Reasoning Effort set to Auto.
That's it.
Closing Notes
Make sure your prompt post-processing in your Connection Profile tab is set to Strict user-first with no tools.

This setup is supposed to make your models not use reasoning, since it's not very good for long-term roleplay. If you're getting reasoning running in the background, the easiest way to turn it off is to either use a non-thinking model, and/or to head to the Advanced Formatting tab and toggling Auto-parse ON and setting the reasoning template to blank.
That should be it. I've made this preset largely through blood, sweat and tears and unending frustration with how terrible most other presets are at maintaining an acceptable modicum of quality. I hope it serves you well.
If you'd like to give some feedback on my preset, or if you have persisting issues, contact me on my discord server: https://discord.gg/63vfTWteeq Or shoot me a dm on discord. biguswigus
FIN.