Actions

Actions are clickable buttons that Biel.ai can add to assistant answers. Each action has a trigger that describes when the button should appear.

Unlike suggested questions, which appear when the chat opens, actions only appear when their trigger matches the user's message.

Common uses

Button	Appears when
Open a support ticket	A user reports a problem the assistant cannot resolve.
Book a call	A user asks about pricing or enterprise plans.
Start a trial	A user asks how to get started.

Where actions appear

An answer can show one or more matching actions, or none. Actions appear as buttons in the widget and links in integrations such as Slack. Users see the button text, not the trigger.

Action fields

Field	Description
Name	Internal identifier for the action. Use only letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores, for example contact_support. Each name must be unique within the project.
When to use	Plain-language description of when the action should appear. Biel.ai uses this as the trigger, so describe the user's intent and situation as specifically as possible.
Button text	Label shown to the user, for example Contact support.
URL	Address that opens in a new tab when the user clicks the button. The URL can include conversation placeholders.

Pass conversation context

When an action opens a form or external tool, that destination does not automatically receive the conversation context.

You can include placeholders in the URL to pass useful information, such as the conversation ID, the user's latest question, or a link back to the conversation.

For example:

https://support.example.com/new?conversation_id={chat_id}

Before showing the button, Biel.ai replaces each placeholder with its value.

You can map these values to any field your destination supports, such as a subject line, hidden form field, or query parameter.

Available placeholders

Placeholder	Value
{chat_id}	The conversation ID. Use the Conversation ID filter on the project's Chats tab to find it.
{chat_url}	Direct link to the conversation in the Biel.ai dashboard. The viewer must be signed in to your team.
{question}	The user's most recent message, up to 500 characters.

Placeholder values are URL-encoded.

If a placeholder has no value, Biel.ai replaces it with an empty value rather than leaving the placeholder text in the URL.

Example

The following support action passes the user's latest question and a link to the conversation:

https://support.example.com/new?subject={question}&conversation={chat_url}

Configure an action

1. In the Biel.ai dashboard, select your project.

2. Click Settings.

3. Open Assistant in the left sidebar and, under Actions, click Add action.

4. Enter the Name, When to use, Button text, and URL. Use a name such as contact-support without spaces. The button text can be Contact support.

5. Click Save on the Actions card.

Use only the listed placeholders. Unrecognized placeholders prevent saving.

After creating an action, open the assistant on your site and send a message that should match its trigger. Verify that the expected button appears.

Write effective triggers

• Describe the user's intent. Write When the user asks to talk to a human, reports a billing problem, or expresses frustration instead of Show the support button.
• Name the situations the action covers. Broad triggers can cause buttons to appear too often. For example, When the user needs help could match almost any support question.
• Keep triggers distinct. If multiple actions have overlapping triggers, Biel.ai may show more than one button. Avoid overlap unless both buttons are useful together.

For example, this trigger is too broad:

When the user needs help.

A more useful trigger describes the situations that should lead to the action:

When the user reports a bug, says something is not working, or asks to talk to a person.