How a chat integration works
A person types a question in a chat thread. A bot finds the right agent, runs it, and posts the answer back in that thread.
What the bot does
A chat integration needs four things.
- It authenticates as the person who is chatting. Every call the bot makes is made as that person, so the conversations, the memories and the usage belong to that person.
- It finds an agent for each question, using search.
- It runs the agent and posts the answer.
- It keeps the chat thread and the Search2o conversation together, so a follow-up in the same thread continues the same conversation.
What Search2o provides, and what you build
Search2o provides the integration points: the API, the tokens, and the flow that connects a person’s account to a chat application without a password reaching the bot. Search2o does not provide the integration itself. The bot is written and run by your company, because each company’s chat platform, network and approval rules differ.
Everything a bot needs is in the API today, and Building a bot with an AI assistant has prompts that write most of the code. If something in these integration points does not behave as described, or you are unsure how to use one, please get in touch: the Help icon in the GUI reaches us, and so does info@search2o.com. We are happy to help.
What to decide before starting
- Who may connect a chat account. Every person who uses the bot needs a Search2o account.
- Whether tokens expire. A token that never expires is convenient, and has to be revoked by hand.
- How the bot reaches the agent server. A bot outside the network needs the agent server to be reachable, or a tunnel.
- What happens to an agent that produces HTML. Either change the agent, or have the bot convert the HTML. See Showing the answer.