User Guide
en
Language
en English zh_TW Chinese (Taiwan)

# 7.Captain assistant

Open in
View as Markdown Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude
E

Ellen . Lee

Last updated on Sep 27, 2026

Captain assistant

| Item | Details |

|—|—|

| Who it is for | Administrators configure it; agents use Copilot / rewrite |

| Menu location | Left sidebar Captain; model switches under Settings → Captain |

| Plan dependency | Requires Captain. Reply counts and FAQ counts are billed monthly / against stock |

Captain is the workspace AI assistant: it can auto-reply to customers on selected inboxes, and help agents rewrite, summarise and suggest replies in the conversation view.

Each workspace can create up to a platform limit of assistants (about 25). Each inbox can bind only one assistant.

—

1. Capabilities at a glance

| Capability | Who uses it | Description |

|—|—|—|

| Inbox auto-reply | Customers | When a conversation is Pending and the inbox has an assistant bound, Captain answers from the knowledge base |

| Hand over to a human | Customers / agents | When the assistant cannot resolve the issue or a rule matches, the conversation is passed to a person |

| FAQ | Administrators | Q&A knowledge retrieved during auto-reply |

| Documents | Administrators | Upload files or web URLs; parsing produces FAQ drafts |

| Scenarios | Administrators | Define “for this kind of question, add a label / call an API / hand over” |

| Tools | Administrators | Let the assistant call HTTP APIs (look up orders, etc.); count is capped |

| Playground | Administrators | Try the assistant without messaging customers |

| Copilot | Agents | Ask the AI beside the conversation, with current-thread context |

| Rewrite / summarise / suggest reply | Agents | Generate copy in one click; you confirm before sending |

| Speech-to-text | Agents | Transcribe voice messages (requires the matching switch) |

Auto-replies consume Captain reply quota (monthly). Copilot overview stats usually do not use that quota. Vector retrieval of knowledge is not billed as “replies”, but generating an answer is.

—

2. Before you enable it (administrators)

  1. Confirm the plan includes Captain and this month’s reply quota is not exhausted.

  2. Settings → Captain: choose models for editor, assistant, Copilot and transcription, and whether assistant / Copilot / transcription are on.

  3. Optional: connect your own OpenAI-compatible key (BYOK). Matching calls may bypass platform billing; on failure they may fall back to the platform model (per current settings).

  4. Prepare knowledge: product URLs, FAQ sheets, Help Centre articles.

Never put secrets in conversations or articles.

—

3. Creating an assistant

  1. Open Captain. If none exists yet, follow the creation wizard.

  2. Enter a name and persona / instructions (state clearly who you are, what you must not promise, and when to hand over).

  3. Bind one or more inboxes (each inbox may have only one assistant).

  4. Set audience and hours (for example auto-reply only in business hours; outside hours leave for humans).

  5. Turn the assistant on.

3.1 When auto-reply fires

All of the following must be true:

  1. Conversation status is Pending

  2. No human agent and no Agent Bot is the assignee

  3. The inbox has a bound, enabled assistant

  4. The contact matches audience rules and is within allowed hours

  5. Monthly Captain reply quota is not exhausted

So: once you assign the conversation to yourself, Captain usually stops. Keep it Pending and do not claim it early if you want the assistant to answer first.

—

4. Knowledge: FAQ and documents

4.1 FAQ

– Add questions and standard answers under Captain → FAQ.

– The assistant retrieves these when answering.

– After conversations end, the system may suggest new FAQs; approve or reject them under “FAQ suggestions” so bad wording does not enter the knowledge base.

FAQ count is limited by the plan’s faqs quota.

4.2 Documents

– Add a web URL or upload a file; the system fetches/parses and proposes FAQ candidates.

– Review manually before approving. Delete or update stale pages, or the assistant will cite old policy.

Published Help Centre articles can also be a knowledge source if vector search is enabled (plan feature “Help Center Embedding Search”). A steadier pattern: Help Centre for customer self-service, FAQ for Captain’s scripted answers.

—

5. Scenarios and tools

Scenarios: describe a flow in natural language, for example “customer wants a refund → label refund → hand over”. Scenarios can use built-in actions (look up FAQ, hand over, label, note) and custom tools.

Tools: register an HTTP endpoint (tracking, subscription lookup). Notes:

– Expose only read-only or tightly scoped write APIs the assistant truly needs

– Verify in a test environment before production

– Custom tools are capped (about 50)

– If a tool fails, instruct the assistant to hand over rather than invent order status

Use Playground with real questions for several rounds before enabling for customers.

—

6. Guardrails and system settings

In the assistant’s Settings / guidelines / guardrails you can:

– Restrict topics that must not be discussed

– Define handover wording

– Tune reply style and language

– Choose whether to write “memory” after resolve, and whether to extract FAQ suggestions

After changes, regression-test in Playground so the assistant does not suddenly become too quiet or too wordy.

—

7. How agents use it

  1. Open any conversation.

  2. Suggest reply / rewrite / summarise: polish a draft, then send after you confirm.

  3. Copilot: ask in the sidebar, for example “From history, what did this customer complain about last time?”

  4. Voice messages: if transcription is on, wait briefly for the transcript.

These features help you, but you remain responsible for what is sent. Confirm refunds and legal commitments manually.

—

8. Usage and quality

– Check this month’s captain_responses and faqs under Settings → Billing.

– Charts on the Captain overview help with auto-resolution rate and handover reasons.

– When quota runs out, auto-reply stops and conversations may stay Pending — hand over or upgrade promptly.

—

9. Frequently asked questions

Assistant stays silent? Check: feature on, inbox bound, conversation Pending, not already claimed by a person, quota, business hours, audience rules.

Assistant answers badly? Tighten instructions, delete bad FAQs, add guardrails, force handover on uncertain questions.

Use with Agent Bot or Dialogflow? Think of bot assignees as mutually exclusive per inbox: do not let several auto systems fight over one conversation. Pick one primary auto-reply path.

Customers see the name “Captain”? Change the assistant display name / handover copy to your brand wording.

—

Related articles

– Conversation workspace

– Help Centre

– Channels and inboxes

– Billing and usage