Chapter 4
Agents
An assistant is the brain that answers your customers: each one has its own persona, rules and knowledge, then goes live on a channel such as web chat or Zalo. Everything is configured from the left menu of the detail page, and most changes stay drafts until you click Save and publish.
This chapter goes from creating an assistant to managing many of them, using one demo assistant called Tư vấn StepX. First action and Conditions are covered in the Toolkit chapter; the Knowledge tab in the Knowledge chapter (attach knowledge, priority knowledge, knowledge conditions); the Channels tab will be in the Channel chapter.
9 videos · 10:15
Create an assistant in three steps: type, channel group, name. The portal opens the detail page right away, with a left menu listing everything to configure.
Use it when: Starting an assistant for your website, or needing a separate one for Facebook and Zalo.
Steps
- 1Open Agents in the sidebar; the counter shows assistants in use against your plan limit. Click Create agent.
- 2Step 1 picks the type: Customer support is available now; Internal assistants for your team are coming soon.
- 3Step 2 picks the channel group: Chat for the web widget and API, or Social for Facebook Pages and Zalo OA. The comparison table lists channels, audience, setup and media support for each.
- 4Step 3 names and describes it. The detail page opens with the left menu: Persona, First action, Conditions, Rules, Guardian, Knowledge, Web search, Channels, Keyfacts, Try it.
Type: Customer support → Chat
Name: Tư vấn StepX
Description: Advises website visitors on plans and features
Good to know
- Social assistants have no First action tab, because that feature only runs on Web Chat and API.
- The number of assistants depends on your plan; at the limit, the dialog says so and suggests upgrading.
Outcome: A new assistant in the right channel group, and you know what the left menu holds.
The persona is how the assistant presents itself. Four fields: name, role, personality and System Prompt, each with a hint next to its label.
Use it when: Right after creating an assistant, or when it answers off-brand.
Steps
- 1Open the Persona tab. The assistant name is the one shown in the list and the name it uses when greeting visitors, so keep it clear to customers.
- 2The role says who the assistant is and who it serves; one clear sentence is enough.
- 3Personality sets the tone: a few adjectives such as friendly, concise, straight to the point.
- 4System Prompt holds standing directions the assistant always follows.
- 5Every change is saved as a draft (the Saved status next to the name) and only takes effect after Save and publish.
Role: StepX consultant helping visitors understand the product and pick the right plan
Personality: Friendly, concise, straight to the point
System Prompt: Always ask about needs before suggesting a plan. Never promise features that don't exist.
Good to know
- On publish, the value in the Name field becomes the assistant's list name; renaming here renames the assistant.
- The default reply language is Vietnamese; to mirror the visitor's language, add the rule Reply in the customer's language.
Outcome: The assistant has a persona clear enough to answer on-brand.
Rules apply to every answer. There is a built-in always-on protection layer, quick templates for common rules, and a preview showing how rules change an answer.
Use it when: The assistant makes things up when data is missing, answers too long, or quotes numbers you don't want published.
Steps
- 1Open the Rules tab. The always-on block lists built-in rules: no fabrication, no internal disclosure, protect personal data…
- 2Under Quick templates, click Add on a template such as Answer only from your sources. The rule appears in the list and is editable.
- 3Click Add custom rule to write your own: a short title and a specific description; the counter shows the character limit.
- 4Scroll to Examples and pick a sample message to see the answer that follows your rules.
- 5Delete any rule that no longer applies. Remember to Save and publish.
Title: No custom quotes
Description: For custom requests, never state a number; invite the visitor to leave details so the team can quote.
Good to know
- The total rule text has a character limit; keep rules short and separate.
- Changes apply from the next conversation after publishing.
Outcome: The assistant has a clear rule set and you can see their effect in advance.
Guardian watches for sensitive content from visitors: politics, hate speech, signs of distress. Rules teach how to answer; Guardian decides whether to answer at all and flags the conversation for your team.
Use it when: The assistant is public on a website or social network, where it may meet abusive content, spam or people in crisis.
Steps
- 1Open the Guardian tab. The default shield already blocks hate speech, spam, prompt attacks, malicious code…
- 2Under Quick templates, click Add on a template such as Sadness, signs of depression. Title, detection prompt and action are pre-filled.
- 3Pick the action when a message matches: still reply and flag, or block the reply and flag.
- 4In Examples, pick a sample message to see what the visitor gets and why the conversation was flagged.
- 5The Enabled switch pauses a Guardian without deleting it. Save and publish to apply.
Good to know
- Flagged conversations appear under Sessions with the matched guardian, for an admin to review.
- Detection prompts share a total character limit; describe the behaviour, don't list every word.
Outcome: The assistant stops at the right moment on sensitive content and your team is notified.
Persona, rules, Guardian, first action, conditions, knowledge and web search all stay drafts until you publish. Publishing pushes the new configuration to every linked channel immediately.
Use it when: After each round of edits, or when a channel still answers with the old configuration.
Steps
- 1The status next to the assistant name shows the draft is auto-saved; Save and publish lights up when there are changes.
- 2Click Save and publish. The confirmation reminds you: the new configuration applies to every linked channel immediately; channel-level settings such as domains and appearance stay as they are.
- 3Click Yes, publish now. The assistant is Active and the draft is cleared.
- 4If a channel still answers with the old configuration, click Clear cache, confirm, and allow up to a minute to sync.
Good to know
- Keyfacts save immediately, outside the publish step.
- If a tab has an error (for example a condition without a name), it shows a red dot and publishing is blocked until fixed.
Outcome: You know which changes need publishing and how to force channels onto the new configuration.
Keyfacts are facts about the visitor the assistant extracts during the conversation: job title, company, needs, team size. Each one is written to the Contact profile under its key.
Use it when: You want customer profiles to fill up after each conversation without asking through a form.
Steps
- 1Open the Keyfacts tab. How it works: every visitor message is scanned against the active keyfacts; on a match, the value is saved to the contact.
- 2Quick templates pre-fill the name, key and detection prompt; click Add on Company / Organization.
- 3Click Add keyfact to create your own: name, key (letters, digits, underscores) and a detection prompt under 200 characters.
- 4The sample conversation shows what the assistant would extract from a chat.
- 5The counter shows keyfacts used against your plan limit.
Name: Team size
Key: team_size
Detection prompt: Detect when the visitor mentions headcount or company size
Good to know
- Keyfacts save immediately, no publish needed.
- Contact collection must be enabled under Organization; when off, this tab is locked.
- Collected values are visible under Contacts.
Outcome: Customer profiles grow on their own after each conversation.
By default the assistant only uses your knowledge. Turn on web search when it needs outside information, and choose the scope: only the sites you list, or the whole internet.
Use it when: The assistant needs news, a partner site or public documents you don't want to load into Knowledge.
Steps
- 1Open the Web search tab and flip the switch on.
- 2Trusted sources only: add URLs one by one; the assistant searches just those sites.
- 3The whole internet reaches further but sources are harder to control; the warning says so. For a customer assistant, keep trusted mode.
- 4The quota card shows searches left this month on your plan. Save and publish to apply.
https://stepx.vn
https://stepx.vn/guide
Good to know
- Each search counts against the organisation's monthly quota.
- When answering from the web, sources appear under the reply in Try it and on channels.
Outcome: The assistant can look up outside information within the scope you allow.
Try it is a private chat room to test the assistant with the published configuration: persona, rules, knowledge, web search. The debug panel lets technical users inspect the request, response and latency.
Use it when: After every publish, before linking a channel, or after changing knowledge.
Steps
- 1Open the Try it tab, click Start test and wait for the connection.
- 2Ask like a real visitor. The answer uses the persona, rules and attached knowledge; when the assistant searches the web, sources appear below.
- 3Click the bug icon to open the debug panel: outgoing request, response, latency and raw payload.
- 4Ask one more question to see persona and rules in action, for example the assistant asking about needs before suggesting a plan.
- 5The test session is kept while you switch tabs; after editing and publishing, click Restart to test on a fresh session.
Which StepX plan suits a 20-person company?
We are a 20-person software company and need a Zalo chatbot
Good to know
- Try it uses the published configuration; unpublished drafts don't show yet.
- Forms, buttons and calendars from First action and Conditions also render here.
Outcome: You confirm the assistant answers as intended before customers see it.
With many assistants, the three-dot menu on each card gathers the housekeeping: pin to the top, rename and describe, duplicate into another channel group, and delete with confirmation.
Use it when: Opening a new branch, making a Social copy of a tuned web assistant, or cleaning up unused ones.
Steps
- 1Three-dot menu: Pin, Edit, Duplicate, Delete. Pin moves your go-to assistant to the top.
- 2Edit changes the name and description quickly without opening the detail page.
- 3Duplicate: pick the channel group for the copy (Chat or Social, with a warning when switching), name it; persona, rules, Guardian, first action, knowledge, conditions and keyfacts are copied.
- 4The type filter above the list narrows to Chat or Social.
- 5Delete is permanent and removes the assistant from every channel using it, so you must type DELETE to confirm.
Good to know
- A copy defaults to the original name plus (copy); assistant names must be unique in the organisation.
- Linked channels don't follow the copy; link them again on the Channels tab.
Outcome: A tidy assistant list even as the number grows.