Actions

Actions are clickable buttons the chatbot can add to its answers. You define a button and, in plain language, the condition that triggers it. The button then appears whenever a conversation matches that condition.

Unlike suggested questions, which always appear when the chat opens, an action only shows up when it's triggered.

Common uses

Actions turn an answer into a next step, letting a user act without leaving the chat. For example:

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

important

Only Administrator or Maintainer roles can manage projects. See Manage roles.

How actions work

1. You define an action with a name, a trigger, a button label, and a URL.
2. On each message, the chatbot checks every action's trigger against what the user just asked.
3. When a trigger matches, the chatbot adds its button to the answer. A single answer can include none, one, or several buttons.
4. The button appears in the web widget, or as a link in chat integrations like Slack.

The trigger you write is sent to the LLM but never shown to users. The URL is attached to the button by Biel.ai, so it never appears in the answer text unless you put it there yourself.

Action fields

Field	Description
Name	Internal identifier the LLM uses to reference the action. Letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores only (e.g. contact_support). Must be unique within the project.
When to use	Plain-language description of when this action should fire. This is the trigger the LLM matches against — be specific.
Button text	The label shown on the button inside the chat (e.g. Contact support).
URL	The address the button opens in a new tab when the user clicks it.

Configure an action

1. In the Biel.ai dashboard, select your project.
2. Click Settings.
3. Under Chatbot > Actions, click Add action.
4. Fill in the Name, When to use, Button text, and URL.
5. Click Save.

Add as many actions as you need. Open the chatbot on your site and send a message that matches one of your triggers to verify the button appears.

Write effective triggers

The When to use field is the only thing the LLM has to decide whether a button is relevant, so the quality of your triggers determines whether actions fire at the right moments.

• Describe the user's intent, not the button. Write "When the user asks to talk to a human, mentions billing problems, or sounds frustrated" rather than "Show the support button."
• Be specific about the situation. Vague triggers fire too often or not at all. List the concrete cases the action covers.
• Keep triggers distinct. If two actions have overlapping triggers, the LLM may surface both. That's fine when both are genuinely relevant, but avoid accidental overlap.

Example. For a "Contact support" button, a vague trigger like When the user needs help fires on almost every message. A strong one names the situations: When the user reports a bug, says something isn't working, or asks to talk to a person.

Action not firing when expected?

Make the trigger more concrete and add the exact phrasings users tend to use. The LLM matches against the user's current message, so triggers tied to specific intents work better than broad ones.