Assistant settings
2 min read
Open an assistant’s settings with Assistant settings, at the bottom of the assistant’s sections. The How it answers card holds the settings below. Change what you need and select Save. The next answer uses the new settings, everywhere: the website widget, the API and the Playground.
Viewers can see these settings but not change them.
How it answers
Section titled “How it answers”| Setting | What it does | Limit | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assistant’s name | The name the assistant answers as. Also the widget’s title when you leave the widget title empty. | 80 characters | Empty |
| Company | Your company’s name. The assistant answers as your company’s support assistant. | 80 characters | Empty |
| Tone | Friendly, Formal or Concise. | Friendly | |
| Extra guidance | Instructions on tone and scope. | 1,500 characters | Empty |
| When the docs don’t cover it | What the assistant says instead of guessing. | 300 characters, one line | See below |
| Model | Fast (recommended) or Careful. | Fast | |
| Keep conversations for | How many days each answer stays in Conversations. | 1 to 365 days | 30 days |
| Keep the questions people ask | Whether question and answer text is stored. | On |
| Tone | How the assistant writes |
|---|---|
| Friendly | Warm and plain-spoken |
| Formal | Courteous and formal |
| Concise | Brief: a sentence or two, or a short list |
Extra guidance
Section titled “Extra guidance”Use extra guidance for tone and scope, for example: “Call customers members. Don’t discuss pricing.” Extra guidance can make the assistant say less. It can’t make the assistant answer from outside your documents, and it can’t override the rules that keep answers to your documents. See How answers work.
When the docs don’t cover it
Section titled “When the docs don’t cover it”This message is the whole reply when your documents don’t answer a question. The assistant uses it word for word. Point people somewhere useful, such as your support email or a contact page. Line breaks are removed, and an empty message falls back to the default:
I’m sorry, I can’t find that in our documentation. Please contact our support team.
The message is returned as you wrote it, whatever language the customer asked in.
Fast answers in a second or two and suits most help centres. Careful takes longer and handles tricky, multi-part questions better. The two models are charged at different rates, which the Billing page lists. To compare them on your own questions before you switch, use the model picker in the Playground. The picker changes one answer only.
Keep conversations for
Section titled “Keep conversations for”Each answer is deleted from Conversations automatically this many days after it was given. A new value applies to answers given after you save it. Answers already in the log keep the period they were stored with.
Keep the questions people ask
Section titled “Keep the questions people ask”With this setting off, Snoowl Answers doesn’t store the text of questions or answers. Conversations still shows each answer’s result, sources, timing, feedback and cost, with “Not kept” in place of the text. Unanswered can’t group questions without their text, so it only counts the declines it couldn’t show.
The Name card renames the assistant, as it appears in the Assistants list. Renaming doesn’t change the assistant’s name in answers. That comes from Assistant’s name above.
Delete
Section titled “Delete”Delete removes the assistant with its documents, its keys and its conversation log. Chatbots and websites using its keys stop getting answers on their next request. Deleting can’t be undone.