Creating Your First Agent

This walkthrough takes you from an empty Organization to a working Agent you can chat with. By the end, you'll have created an Agent, given it knowledge about a property, and tested it in the preview.

The full setup has four steps:

1. Create an Agent
2. Create a Place and add knowledge
3. Assign the Place to the Agent
4. Test the Agent in preview

It takes about 10 minutes.

Step 1: Create an Agent

1. In the sidebar, go to Agents > Overview.
2. Click Create Agent in the top right.
3. In the dialog that appears:
   • Enter a Name for your Agent (e.g., "Hotel Concierge" or "Front Desk Assistant").
   • Select an Agent Type:
     • Guest Agent -- a general-purpose assistant that answers guest questions using your knowledge and connected guest data.
     • Booking Agent -- focused on driving direct bookings by guiding guests to your booking portal with pre-filled fields.
   • Click Create.

Your Agent appears in the list. Click on it to open its detail page. You'll see tiles for all the things you can configure: Preview chat, Places, Settings, Instructions, Features, Start Parameters, Website Integration, API Integration, and Channel Integrations.

Tip: You can change your Agent's name and other settings anytime by clicking the Settings tile.

Don't worry about configuring everything now. First, let's give the Agent something to talk about.

Step 2: Create a Place and Add Knowledge

A Place represents a property (a hotel, resort, or venue). When you create a Place, you can add knowledge to it right away.

1. In the sidebar, go to Knowledge > Places.
2. Click Create Place in the top right.
3. Fill in the basic details:
   • Name -- your property name (e.g., "TrustYou Palace")
   • Type -- select the property type (default: Hotel)
   • Country and City -- the property location (helps the Agent answer location-related questions)

4. Optionally connect a Reviews Resource: if your property is in TrustYou, select it from the dropdown to automatically pull in guest reviews as knowledge.

5. AI Search is enabled by default. This creates a Place AI Search Resource that generates a summary of your property using AI. You can add a Place Hint (like the full address or a description) to help the AI find accurate information.

6. Add a Website Resource: click + Add Resource under the Website Resource section. Fill in:

   • Name -- a label for this resource (e.g., "Hotel Website")
   • URL -- your property's website URL
   • The extraction patterns are pre-configured to pull images and hotel facts automatically.

7. Optionally add content in the Free Field Info editor. This is a rich text field where you can paste property information directly (good for FAQs, house rules, or descriptions that aren't on your website).

8. Click Create Place.

After creation, you'll see the Place detail page with all your Resources listed. The system auto-created several Resources based on what you configured:

• Place AI Search -- an AI-generated summary of your property
• Website Resources -- one per extraction pattern (images, hotel facts)
• Free Text Field Info -- the markdown content you entered

9. Click Refresh All to index the Resources. The Agent can only use knowledge that's been indexed. Once the Last Refresh column shows timestamps, your knowledge is ready.

Step 3: Assign the Place to the Agent

Now connect the Place to your Agent so it knows which property to talk about.

1. Go to your Agent's detail page (sidebar: Agents > Overview, then click your Agent).
2. Click the Places tile.
3. You'll see a list of all Places in your Organization. Check the box next to the Place you just created to assign it.

Your Agent now has knowledge. It can answer questions about the property based on the Resources you added.

Step 4: Test the Agent

1. Go to your Agent's detail page (click Guest Agent in the breadcrumb).
2. Click Preview chat.
3. A chat widget opens in the bottom right. The Agent greets you with a welcome message.
4. Type a question about your property, for example:
   • "What are the check-in times?"
   • "Do you have parking?"
   • "Tell me about the hotel."

The Agent searches its knowledge and responds based on what it found. If it can't find an answer in its Resources, it will let you know honestly rather than guessing.

Note: The disclaimer at the bottom of the chat ("AI-generated answers may be incorrect") is always visible to guests. This is by design.

What's Next

Your Agent is working. Here's what to do next to make it even better:

• Add more Resources -- the more knowledge your Agent has, the better it answers. Go to your Place and click Create Resource to add more website pages, upload documents (PDFs, text files), or write markdown content directly.
• Change the Agent's name -- go to Settings to update the display name, tone of voice, and response length.
• Customize behavior -- go to Instructions to write custom instructions that shape the Agent's tone, priorities, and what topics to focus on or avoid.
• Enable Features -- go to Features to turn on capabilities like Human Handover (escalate to your team), Quick Actions (shortcut buttons), or Personalized Welcome Messages.
• Connect a Channel -- go to Website Integration to get the embed code for your website, or Channel Integrations to set up WhatsApp or SMS.

Once you're happy with how the Agent performs in preview, connect it to a Channel to make it available to guests.

Related articles:

• Understanding Your Agent's Knowledge: Places and Resources -- the mental model behind Places and Resources
• How the Agent Works -- how the Agent thinks and what it can and can't do
• Creating and Managing Places -- create and organize the Places that hold your Agent's knowledge