Chatbot reference

Overview

A chatbot is a chat window you share as a link or a website widget. A workflow answers it. This page lists every field of the chatbot builder, the rules for where a chatbot is served and who answers it, the limits, and each visitor-facing message.

For a first build, start with the quickstart.

The list

Chatbots in the sidebar lists your agency's chatbots, for every client. Each card shows:

The card's menu has Copy link and Open the chat for a live chatbot, and Delete chatbot for every chatbot.

Builder fields

The builder has four tabs, Setup, Appearance, Consent, and Share, and a Client list in its header. The Consent tab has its own page: Ask visitors for consent before a chat. A tab that holds a field with an error is marked with a red dot.

Name, Greeting, Suggested questions, Title, and Client are saved together when you click Save. While there is something to save, the header shows "Unsaved changes". Save is unavailable while a field has an error, and the header then shows "Fix the marked fields to save."

Allowed websites are different: each website saves the moment you add or remove it.

A saved change applies to the next page load. You do not publish again for it.

Suggested questions

• Blank rows are dropped when you save.
• The same question cannot be listed twice. The second one is marked "This question is already in the list."
• Add question is unavailable once there are 4 rows.

Appearance

The look of a chatbot is its brand, and the brand comes from its client. The Appearance tab shows which brand applies under Brand, with a Change this brand link to that brand's settings.

After you change Client, the preview keeps the previous brand until you click Save.

The preview

The right side of the builder is a live preview of the chat. It follows what you type before you save. You can send it messages and click its suggested questions; it always answers "This is a preview. Replies come from your workflow once it is published." and never starts a run. On a narrow screen, click Preview in the header to open it.

Status

In the workflow editor's chatbot list, the same two states are written "(draft)" and "(live)".

Answered by

The Answered by card on the Setup tab shows which workflow replies to the chatbot.

Open workflow opens that workflow in the editor.

Create workflow

Create workflow makes a draft workflow that already answers this chatbot: the Chat message received trigger, an AI Agent with a Memory sub-node that remembers each visitor's conversation, and a Respond node that returns the agent's answer as text. Add a model to the AI Agent and publish the workflow.

For a client's chatbot, the workflow is created in that client's workspace. For an agency-brand chatbot, it is created in the workspace you are working in. Unsaved changes to the chatbot are saved first.

One chatbot, one workflow

• One chatbot is answered by one workflow. In a Chat trigger's list, a chatbot that another workflow already answers shows "Used by" with that workflow's name and cannot be picked.
• An agency-brand chatbot can be answered by a workflow in any of your workspaces.
• A client's chatbot can be answered only by a workflow in that client's workspace.

Share

The Share tab holds the chat link, the allowed websites, and the embed code. While the chatbot is a draft, the tab says "Publish this chatbot to make the link and the code work."

The link and the embed code use the client's own domain when the chatbot's client has one. Otherwise they use your agency's address, and for a client the tab says so: "has no domain yet, so the link uses your agency domain."

Allowed website format

An entry is an exact address: http:// or https://, a domain, and an optional port. These are the same rules as a form's allowed websites.

When you type an address, the builder tidies it before saving: an address with no http:// or https:// gets https://, and a pasted page address is cut down to its website, so www.example.com/shop is saved as https://www.example.com.

Addresses are saved in lowercase, and the builder says "Already added" when an address is in the list. A refused address stays in the box with the reason under it.

The list applies to the widget only. The chat link always works for a live chatbot, and it cannot be placed inside a frame on another site.

While the list is empty, the embed code carries this notice: "Add a website above first. Until you do, browsers block this snippet on every site."

Where a chatbot is served

A chatbot opened on any other address, such as another client's domain, shows "Chat not found". Each chatbot has its own list of allowed websites; adding a website to one chatbot allows nothing for another.

Deleting a chatbot

Open the card's menu in the list and click Delete chatbot. The link and the embed code stop working at once.

A chatbot that a workflow answers cannot be deleted. The list shows "Chatbot is in use" with a link to the workflow. Pick another chatbot in that workflow's Chat trigger, or delete the workflow, then delete the chatbot.

Limits

Visitors waiting on a reply

Your plan sets how many visitors can be waiting on a reply at once, in one workspace and in your account across all of its workspaces:

Both limits are shared by every chat and every webhook that answers its caller with the workflow's result; see the webhook limits. A visitor who arrives while either limit is reached waits a few seconds and is then asked to try again.

Message limits

These limits protect your usage. A visitor who passes a limit on their own address or session sees "Too many messages, try again shortly." When the chat itself has reached its limit for the minute or the day, every visitor sees "We're helping other visitors. Try again in a moment."

The daily limit is 60 minutes of the chat's per-minute limit, counted from midnight UTC. The chat's own limits apply however many addresses the messages come from, so a visitor who keeps changing address cannot use more than them.

One visitor's address can also start at most 20 new sessions in 10 minutes.

The per-address limit is half of the chat's own limit, never fewer than 2 and never more than 30. One visitor therefore cannot use up a chat's whole minute, and a second visitor still gets answers while the first is being slowed down. Visitors who share a network address, such as people in one office, share that address's limit.

Messages that are refused by a limit do not start a run and are not counted against your plan.

Messages a visitor can see

A widget whose chatbot cannot be found shows nothing at all, so a stale snippet never leaves an empty box on a client's site.

The widget on a page

• The widget sits in the bottom-right corner, 16 pixels from the bottom and right edges of the window. Its position cannot be changed.
• Opened, the chat is 380 by 600 pixels. On screens narrower than 480 pixels it fills the screen.
• The chat always uses the light version of the brand colors, whatever the visitor's device setting.
• The widget adds one frame to the page. It adds no styles, fonts, or scripts of its own to the site, and the site's styles do not reach inside it.
• Pasting the embed code twice on one page still shows one bubble.
• Visitors can use the chat with a keyboard: Enter sends, Shift+Enter starts a new line, and Escape closes the widget.

What is not supported

• File uploads from visitors.
• Handing a conversation to a person, or a shared inbox.
• A transcript view. Each message is a separate run in the workflow's run history.
• Password-protected chats.
• Wildcard entries under Allowed websites.
• Colors or a logo set on the chatbot itself. The look comes from the client's or your agency's brand.
• A dark version of the chat, or a different bubble position or icon.
• More than one workflow answering one chatbot.
• Restoring a conversation on another device.

Related pages

• How chatbots work
• Create a chatbot and put it on a website
• The Chat trigger
• Chat trigger reference