Build your agent
Curated answers & CTAs
Curated answers and CTAs are the two kinds of "deterministic" behavior the widget supports — they bypass the LLM in favor of exact text or structured calls-to-action. Use them where you can't tolerate the model paraphrasing or going off-script.
When to use curated answers
Curated answers are for questions where the response has to be exact:
- Pricing — visitors want numbers, not "around $99/month".
- Legal / compliance — return policy, GDPR statement, contract terms.
- Routing — "how do I contact you?" where you want to push a specific URL.
- Brand-critical FAQs — your highest-stakes 5-10 questions.
Authoring
From /app/agents/{id}/curated:
- Trigger phrases — one per line. Substring match, case-insensitive. Add variants ("price", "pricing", "how much does it cost").
- Answer — the exact text to stream back. Markdown is supported (bold, links, lists).
- Citation URL — optional. If set, the message gets a citation chip linking there.
- Priority — higher wins when multiple curated entries match the same input.
How matching works
Before the RAG pipeline runs, the message goes through
CuratedAnswerMatcher. If any trigger matches, the curated
text is returned and we never call retrieval or the LLM. That makes
curated answers fast — usually under 100ms end-to-end — and
cheap (no inference cost).
The streaming behavior matches the LLM's: tokens stream out one at a time over a small interval so the visitor sees the same typing animation. They have no way to tell a curated answer from a generated one.
CTAs
A CTA is a card the visitor can click — a button, a link, or both — rendered inline in the chat panel. Each CTA has:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
title | One-line headline. |
description | Optional supporting text. |
buttons | 1 or 2 buttons. Each has a label and an action (URL, send_message, lead_capture, dismiss). |
conditions | When to show. Same shape as behavior-rule conditions. |
Common CTA patterns
- Pricing reveal — when visitor asks about cost, show a card with "Compare plans" / "Talk to sales" buttons.
- Demo upsell — after 3 turns of product Q&A, show "Book a 15-min demo".
- Exit intent rescue — when cursor leaves toward the address bar, show "Before you go — quick question?" with a one-click lead form.
- Scroll-deep nudge — at 80% page scroll, offer "See it in action" → demo URL.
Editing
/app/agents/{id}/ctas is the management page. The form is
a structured builder — you don't need to write JSON. Save creates or
updates a behavior rule with kind=cta. Disable to keep the
rule but stop showing it.
Testing CTAs and curated answers
The Playground (/app/agents/{id}/playground) is your
sandbox. It runs the same pipeline as the live widget but with
is_playground=true on the conversation, so it doesn't count
against your monthly quota and stays out of the analytics report.
Type a trigger phrase and confirm the curated answer fires. Type something close-but-not-quite and confirm it doesn't (otherwise your triggers are too loose).