The basics
An agent is your bot – one AI chat assistant for one website or use-case.
A coffee store might run a “Support” agent; an agency might run a separate agent
for each client.
Workspace
Your account. A workspace can hold many agents, so you keep all your bots in one place – for example, a “Support Bot” and a “Sales Bot” side by side.Knowledge Base / Sources
The content your bot learns from. You add Sources – your website, files, or text – under the Knowledge Base tab, and your bot answers from them.Training is the step where your bot reads a source and learns it. You add a
source, Chatref processes it in the background, and the source shows as
Trained when it’s ready to use in answers.
On your visitor’s screen
Widget
The chat bubble visitors see on your site. They click it to open the chat and talk to your bot. You style it under Settings and add it with one line of code.Visitor vs Owner
A visitor is a person on your website who chats with your bot. The owner is you – the person with the Chatref account who builds and manages the bot.Conversation
One chat thread between a visitor and your bot, from the first message to the last. Every conversation is saved so you can read it later.Reading and steering chats
Inbox
Where you read every visitor conversation. Pick a chat on the left to see the full transcript on the right.Human handoff lets you step in as a real person. It’s owner-initiated –
your bot never hands off on its own. When you send the first human reply, the
bot pauses for that chat; click Return to AI to let it resume. Turn it on
per agent with Allow human handoff.
Tags & Engagement
Tags are labels on a conversation, added by you or automatically. Each chat also gets an engagement type:| Engagement | What it means |
|---|---|
| QUESTION | The visitor asked a real question or had a problem. |
| NAVIGATION | The visitor tapped a menu, suggestion, or topic – routing, not a question. |
| NONE | A greeting, thanks, test, or gibberish. |
Insights
Your analytics dashboard. It shows what your bot did over the last 7 or 30 days – how many chats it had, what it answered, what it couldn’t, and what to improve next.Behind the answers
Model
The AI brain that writes your bot’s replies. You pick one per agent from four tiers, and pricier tiers cost a little more per message.| Tier | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Budget | Simple, high-volume support at the lowest cost. |
| Standard | A balanced default for most bots. |
| Premium | Trickier questions that need stronger reasoning. |
| Flagship | The most demanding, high-stakes conversations. |
Balance
The money your account holds, shown in US dollars. Chatref is pay as you go: your balance is drawn down a little each time your bot works – answering chats, training, tagging, and Insights. You top up when it runs low. New accounts start with $50 of free trial credit.Next steps
Quickstart
Put these pieces together and get a live bot in minutes.
Creating an Agent
Create your first bot and explore its dashboard tabs.