Create a knowledge-backed chat agent
Chat agents are reusable customer-facing assistants. Each agent has its own instructions, model, and knowledge scope, and can be assigned to one or more website chat widgets. You might create: \- A support agent backed by your Articles object. \- A product assistant backed by your Products object. \- A sales agent backed by published services, FAQs, or pricing information. ## Before you begin Your knowledge object must be available for public use. Only the following information can be used by a public chat agent: \- Object types marked as publishable. \- Records that are published and not archived. \- Fields declared as public on the object type. Private fields, relationships, images, and portal-hidden information are excluded. ## Create the agent 1\. Open **Agents** in your workspace. 2\. Select **New chat agent**. 3\. Give the agent a clear name, such as `Customer support` or `Product guide`. 4\. Choose the model the agent should use. 5\. Write its instructions. 6\. Select one or more knowledge objects. 7\. Save the agent. Keep the instructions focused on one job. Explain: \- Who the agent helps. \- What kinds of questions it should answer. \- The tone it should use. \- When it should say it does not know. \- When the visitor should be handed to a person. ## Test the agent Use the test console in the agent editor before enabling it. Ask the kinds of questions a real visitor might ask. Hub will: 1\. Search the agent's approved knowledge. 2\. Select records relevant to the question. 3\. Generate a grounded answer. 4\. Show the records used as sources. Open the sources and confirm that the answer is supported by the published content. Testing does not publish the agent, change a record, or create a customer conversation. ## Enable the agent Enable the agent when its instructions, answers, and sources are ready. An agent must be enabled and have at least one valid knowledge source before it can be published through a chat widget. ## Assign the agent to a chat widget 1\. Open **Chat widgets**. 2\. Create a widget or edit an existing one. 3\. Open the **Persona** section. 4\. Select the chat agent you want the widget to use. 5\. Configure the widget's branding, welcome content, and page context. 6\. Preview and publish the widget. The agent controls its instructions, model, and workspace knowledge. The widget controls where and how the customer experience appears. The same agent can be assigned to multiple widgets, so you can update its instructions or knowledge scope without maintaining several separate copies. ## How answers are grounded For each customer question, Hub searches the agent's approved published records and passes the most relevant content into the answer. When evidence is used, the answer includes visible sources that the visitor can open. If there is no relevant approved evidence, the agent should avoid inventing an answer and offer a human follow-up instead. ## How conversation access works Each conversation is protected by the identity of the visitor who started it. A conversation ID alone does not authorise a visitor to send messages, approve customer actions, or cancel requests. **Authenticated conversations** — when a widget has visitor identity enabled, the visitor must be signed in with the same verified identity that was used when the conversation started. A different signed-in visitor cannot access another visitor's conversation. **Anonymous conversations** — Hub issues a per-conversation session token when the conversation is created. This token is valid for 24 hours. Visitors use it automatically while their session is active. Once the token expires, the visitor must start a new conversation. **Conversations started before this protection was introduced** — anonymous conversations that were created before session tokens were issued must also start a new conversation. Their conversation ID alone no longer grants access. This means that if a visitor's session expires or they switch to a new device, they will need to start a fresh conversation rather than resume the previous one. ## Hand conversations to your team When a visitor requests help from a person, Hub keeps the conversation together with: \- The assigned agent. \- The visitor's messages. \- The answer history and supporting sources. \- The visitor's contact details. \- The reason for the follow-up. Your team can continue from the shared conversation inbox without asking the customer to repeat everything.