Chat Actions

Actions let the AI agent look things up in your own systems while it answers, for example a price for a given number of users, or a signed-in customer's plan. Each action is a REST endpoint on your side. The AI decides when to call one, fills in the details from the conversation, and answers from the result.

Go to Inbox, then Messenger settings, then the Actions tab.

How an action works

A visitor asks something an action can answer, such as "What would 25,000 contacts cost?"
The AI picks the action from its description and fills in the parameters from the conversation. If a required value is missing, it asks the visitor. It never guesses one.
Our server calls your endpoint and passes the result back to the AI.
The AI answers from the result, following your instructions, and quotes figures exactly.

Calls are made from our server, not the visitor's browser, so header values such as API keys never reach visitors.

Add an action

Click Add an action, or Start from an example to begin with a sample pricing action. Your endpoint must use https and return JSON. Then fill in:

Field	What to enter
Name the AI calls	A short name such as `price_contacts`: lowercase letters, digits and `_`
Method	GET puts parameters in the query string. POST sends them as a JSON body.
URL (https)	Your endpoint. `{name}` in the URL is replaced by that parameter's value.
When should the AI use it, and what does it return?	The AI decides from this. Say what the action answers and when to use it.
Parameters	What the AI fills in: name, type (string, integer, number or boolean), required, min and max, and what it means. Up to 8.
Headers	Optional, such as an API key. Tick Secret and the value is never shown again after saving. Up to 5.
Result path	The part of the JSON the AI should see, such as `Response.rate`. Leave blank to pass the whole response.
How the AI should use the result	Units, caveats and next steps, such as "total is USD per month".

The Actions tab with a pricing action open, showing its name, method, URL, description, a contacts parameter, a secret Authorization header, result instructions and Try it, and a second collapsed action for signed-in customers — Messenger settings, Actions tab

Click Save settings. Saved actions are collapsed to their name and description; click one to open it. Each action has an on/off switch, and one that's missing something it needs is marked Incomplete: the AI can't use it yet. You can have up to 20 actions.

Test an action

Open an action, enter sample values under Try it, and click Run test. It calls your endpoint and shows exactly what the AI would be given. To see how the AI uses an action in an answer, ask a question on the Test tab. See Testing the Chat AI.

Safety rules

Only public https addresses can be called. Private, internal and cloud-metadata addresses are refused.
Redirects aren't followed.
Each call has an 8-second timeout and reads at most 256 KB.
Values the AI fills in are checked against your parameter definitions before the call.
There are at most 3 rounds of calls per answer.
If a call fails, the AI says it couldn't get the information and offers a person. It never makes up a figure.

Your team sees each call, with its inputs and result, under the AI's answer in the inbox. Visitors never see it. See Using the Chat Inbox.

Example: pricing lookups

DailyStory uses two GET actions for pricing. Both have one required quantity parameter (integer) and the Result path Response.rate:

Name	URL	When to use it	How to use the result
`price_contacts`	`https://app.dailystory.com/license/rate/contacts`	Monthly price of a DailyStory plan for a number of active contacts. Use when the customer asks what DailyStory costs for their list size.	`total` is USD per month; `quantity` is the contact count actually priced (it rounds up to a pricing step; say so if it differs); `included_email` is monthly email sends included. Above 50,000 contacts the plan is Enterprise, so suggest talking to sales.
`price_sms`	`https://app.dailystory.com/license/rate/sms/credits`	Monthly price of pre-purchased text message credits. Use when the customer asks what texting costs per month.	`total` is USD per month for the credits; `overage_rate` is USD per message beyond them.

Asked "What would 25,000 contacts and 10,000 texts a month cost?", the AI calls both and answers "$400 a month for 25,000 contacts (250,000 email sends included), $390 for 10,000 texts, $790 in total." Asked just "How much does it cost?", it asks how many contacts first.

Actions for signed-in customers

For lookups about a customer's own account, such as "What plan am I on?" or "When is my next invoice?", open the action and switch on Only for signed-in customers, and send their user ID.

The action is offered to the AI only when the visitor is signed in and verified: your site passes user_id with a valid user_hash. Anonymous and unverified visitors never get it. See Chat Identity Verification.
Their user ID is sent under the name in Send the user ID as (default user_id): as {user_id} in the URL if you put it there, otherwise in the query string (GET) or JSON body (POST).
Our server fills in the verified ID. The AI never sees it and can't supply one, so a visitor can't get the AI to look up someone else's account.
To test one, enter a User ID to test as next to Run test.
The Test tab runs as an anonymous visitor, so it never uses these actions.

Call shutdown on sign-out

When a customer signs out of your site, call the messenger's shutdown command. Otherwise the browser stays verified as them until the next sign-in. See Chat Messenger JavaScript API.