Your way around the console¶

The developer console is where you build your bots and test them. This page walks through it, one page at a time. Each part says what the page is for, what to look at, what each button does, and where to go next. You do not need to read it in order: Learn more on each console page opens the part about that page.

Getting around¶

On the left of every page is a menu of every page, in groups: first Overview, Installations, Usage and a page for people who write code, then Prove and test, Build and Organisation. At the top you see the email address you signed in with and your role. View as shows the console as a person with another role sees it, so you can see what your team sees. Switch moves you to another organisation, if you belong to more than one. The language button shows the console in English or in Portuguese, and Sign out signs you out.

Under each page's title, press Why this matters to read, in one or two lines, what the page is for. Learn more, at the bottom of the page, opens this guide at the part about that page, in a new tab of your browser. The console stays open in its own tab: to go back to it, click that tab at the top of your browser, or close the guide's tab.

Overview¶

Overview is the first page you see. Get started lists what is left to set up, in order, each step marked done or to do. This month shows how much your bots used, next to what your plan includes; Every meter, by day opens Usage. Installations says how many computers run your bots, and Recent proofs and hunts lists the newest tests your account ran; Every job opens Jobs.

Installations¶

Each computer your bots run on takes one place, and your plan includes a number of places. Installations lists each computer, with the day it was started and the day it last asked for its place. When a computer is gone, or was set up again from the start, press Release beside it: its place is free for another computer. A computer that is still running asks for its place again later. Only an admin or an owner can release a place.

Signing in¶

The sign-in page is the first page you see. Press Continue with Google to sign in with your Google account, or type your email address and press Email me a link. We send you an email with a link in it. Open it on the same computer and press the link: it signs you in at once, with nothing to press, and works for an hour, as often as you open it. If it has stopped working, the page says so; press Ask for a new link. New to Stalwart? Follow the Quickstart opens the Quickstart in a new tab.

Sometimes the page says One moment: your browser is solving a short puzzle that keeps out programs that are not people. Wait, and the page goes on by itself.

The first time you sign in, your organisation is made for you and you go straight to the Overview. When our terms change, the page Updated terms asks you to read them and press Accept and continue. If you belong to more than one organisation, Choose an organisation lists them: press Open beside the one you want.

The Bot Builder¶

The Bot Builder makes a bot that talks to your customers, such as a restaurant's. Its pages are under Build.

Your bots¶

Your bots, under Build, lists your bots. Each of your bots is a card. On each card, Chat starts a conversation with it, Open opens it to change it, and Delete deletes it for good, with its versions and its chat's files and conversations. A copy you installed on a computer keeps running there.

Start from a template opens the templates: bots that already work. This is the best way to begin.
Blank bot makes an empty bot, and you pick its tools yourself.
Your first bot, step by step: the Quickstart opens the Quickstart in a new tab.

Next: press Start from a template.

Start from a template¶

Each template is a card with what the bot is for, A good first bot where it is one, and What it needs. Press Start from this template: your bot is made at once, and its page opens.

To set some things first, press Change its settings first. You can give the bot its name, turn its rules on or off, and set your opening hours, day by day, with Opens at and Closes at. The button under them tells you if anything is missing; then press Create the bot. Back to the templates goes back without making anything.

Next: your bot's page opens by itself.

Your bot¶

This page is one bot. At the top are the two things to do first:

Run it on my computer: choose Windows or Mac, then press the button. You get one line to copy; Copy to clipboard copies it, and A new line makes a new one and stops the old one. The Quickstart shows each step, with pictures.
Chat: chat with your bot here, with its real tools and nothing to install.

Below them are its settings. Change what you like, then press Save at the top. Nothing changes until you do.

Bot name and What it is for: one or two sentences, as you would tell a new member of staff.
Your bot speaks: the language your customers write in.
How to reach you: a phone number or an email address. Your bot gives it to anyone it cannot help.
Greeting: what your bot says first. Left empty, it says hello with its name.
Your logo: Upload your logo puts your picture at the top of its chat; Use Stalwart's logo puts ours back.
Your privacy notice: the web address of the privacy page on your own site.
When your bot doesn't understand: what it does with a message it cannot read. Refuse says it can't help, with how to reach you. Ask first asks the person if an AI may answer. The third choice lets an AI answer at once. An AI runs on your own account with an AI company, which you add on your computer.
Its tools: what your bot may use. Add and Remove change the list; each card says what the tool does.
Who can use what: which tools your customers can use, and which only you and your staff can. Your customers never reach what is for you: the bot says no, with how to reach you.

Back to your bots goes back to all your bots.

Chat¶

On Chat, you chat with your bot here, with its real tools: what it finds is real, and what you approve is done. There is nothing to install. Only you and your organisation's admins can use it. Pick the bot under Bot and press Start chatting. Under Chat as, you start as You, the owner; choose One of your customers to see what your customers see.

Type under Your message and press Send, or Enter; Shift and Enter start a new line. When your bot would change something, such as an order, it asks first: press Go ahead or Don't do it. On the right, Your conversations lists each conversation you have had, kept with the bot: open one to read it again, or Delete it. Delete all deletes them all. New conversation starts afresh, and Stop ends the chat.

Practice with sample answers, ticked before you start, chats on sample answers instead: each tool answers what you see under Sample answers, nothing real is read or written, and nothing is kept. On the right, What the tools were asked lists each tool your bot used. Use it before your accounts are connected, or to see what a change would do without doing it.

Next: to run your bot on your own computer as well, go back to Your bots, open the bot, and press Run it on my computer.

When a tool stops working¶

On a real day, a tool can stop working: a website may be down. Under Build, a page of its own lets you see what your bot does then. Choose the tool that stops working from the list, press Start, and ask your bot for something that uses that tool. You see what your bot tells the person, and what it puts back. Choose No tool to chat on sample answers alone.

Account¶

Account is your organisation. Its Name can be changed: type a new one and press Rename. Plan shows your plan, with a link to Billing.

Under Members is everyone in your organisation, with their role:

an owner can do everything, and is the only one who sees the bill;
an admin can change the bots and their settings;
a viewer can look but not change.

To change someone's role, pick it and press Set; Remove takes them out. To add someone, type their email address under Invite and press Send invitation. Close the organisation, at the bottom, closes it for good: everyone is signed out, and what it stored is deleted.

Billing¶

Only an owner sees Billing. It shows your plan, its price, the card on file and the next payment. Change the plan moves you to another plan, or between paying monthly and yearly. Change the card adds a new card. Cancel at the end of the period keeps your plan until the time you paid for is over, then moves you to the free plan. Under Invoices is each bill, to download as a PDF.

Usage¶

Your plan includes an amount of use each month. Usage shows how much your bots used this month, next to what your plan includes. You are never charged for each use: when a limit is reached, it waits until the next month. By day shows the use day by day.

Settings¶

Settings are for all your organisation's bots at once: the language they read, what they do with a message they cannot read, and how they answer from your documents. Each bot's own page can change most of these for that bot, so most people never need this page. Press Save after a change.

Your bot's parts¶

Three pages in the menu show the parts every bot is made of. A template sets them all up for you, and your bot's own page is where you change your bot, so you only open these to look closer.

Rules: what your bots must ask before they act, and what they must never do.
Phrasings: the sentences your bots use to say what they did, in your own voice.
Reply rules: what your bots' answers may and may not say.

These pages are written in a short text form, explained in the developer guide. If you change one, press Save; Restore puts back the version before.

How your bot learns¶

Four pages in the menu show your bot getting better.

Feedback: the thumbs up and down people gave your bots' answers, by what they were about.
Vocabulary: the words your bots learned from the people who use them. Each change has a version, and Make version ... live again puts an older version back.
Miner: each time we looked for new ways your users ask for things, and what was added.
Grammar: the kinds of sentences your bots could not read yet, and when we taught them to read them.

The work behind your bots¶

Three pages in the menu show work we do for your account. You do not have to do anything on them.

Jobs: each piece of work your account asked for, when it ran and how it ended.
Service: how busy we are for your account, so a slow answer has an explanation.
Storage: what your account keeps, for how long, and what was deleted.

History¶

Only an owner sees Audit. It lists every sign-in and every change to your account: when, who did it, and what changed. Nothing can be taken out of it.

Pages for developers¶

A few pages are for people who build bots in code. They are explained in the developer guide, and Learn more on each of them opens it.