Documentation

Conversation starters

Conversation starters are pre-defined buttons that appear at the beginning of a chat, helping visitors start a common conversation with your brand's AI agent in one tap instead of typing a first message.

How It Works

When a user clicks a conversation starter button:

  1. Display: The button's label appears as the user's message in the chat
  2. AI Processing: The prompt (hidden from users) is sent to the AI for processing
  3. Response: The AI generates a response based on the prompt

This separation allows you to craft natural-sounding prompts while keeping user-facing labels concise and friendly.

Managing Conversation Starters

Starters live at Brand → (your brand) → Vex → Starters. The tab in the product is labelled just Starters.

They belong to the AI agent, not to the brand: deleting Vex removes its starters along with its suggestions and its report history. Your knowledge is untouched, and a new agent starts with no starters of its own.

Creating Starters

Click "Add Starter" to create a new conversation starter with these fields:

Label
string required
The text users see on the button (max 100 characters). Keep it short and action-oriented.
Prompt
string required
The actual question or instruction sent to the AI (minimum 5 characters). This is hidden from users but determines the AI's response.
Active
boolean
Whether this starter is currently shown to users. Inactive starters remain saved but won't appear in the widget.

AI-Generated Labels

Use the "AI Generate" button to automatically create a concise label based on your prompt. The AI will generate a 1-3 word label with an appropriate emoji.

Letting the setup wizard write them

The AI setup wizard — which you can run from Brand → Overview, Brand settings, the chat widget designer or Knowledge — reads your website and can write three or four starters for you, in the language of your site.

It only does this when the agent currently has none. It never adds to, or overwrites, a set you have already built, so a starter you deleted on purpose does not come back on the next run.

Managing Existing Starters

From the starters table, you can:

  • Edit: Modify label, prompt, or active status
  • Delete: Remove starters (with confirmation)
  • Reorder: Use the up/down arrows to change display order
  • Toggle: Enable/disable starters without deleting them
Best Practice: Order your most important or frequently used starters first, as they appear in the same order in the widget.

Examples

Common Starter Configurations

Store Hours

Label: Store Hours 🕒
Prompt: What are your current store hours and holiday schedule?

Returns

Label: Return Policy ↩️
Prompt: Can you explain your return and exchange policy, including timeframes and conditions?

Contact

Label: Contact Us 📞
Prompt: What are the best ways to contact customer support, including phone numbers and email?

Product Help

Label: Help with Products ❓
Prompt: I'm looking for help with your products. Can you tell me about your most popular items and how to choose the right one?

Best Practices

Keep labels short and scannable - Users should instantly understand what clicking the button will do. Aim for 1-3 words with an emoji.
Make prompts conversational - Write prompts as if the user actually asked that question. Include context about what information they might need.
Cover common scenarios - Focus on the most frequent questions or actions your customers take. Don't try to cover every possible interaction.
Test your prompts - After creating starters, test them in the widget to ensure the AI responses are helpful and accurate.
Inactive starters are hidden - Use the Active toggle to temporarily hide starters during promotions or seasonal changes without losing your configuration.

User Experience

In the chat widget, conversation starters appear as buttons below the chat input area. Users can click any button to instantly start a conversation, or they can type their own message to begin chatting normally.

Once a starter is selected, the buttons disappear and the conversation proceeds as usual with the AI's response.

Facebook & Instagram

Starters aren't widget-only: on pages connected through the Meta integration, your top 4 active starters (in display order) are automatically published as tappable opening questions — Meta calls them "ice breakers" — shown when someone opens a new Messenger or Instagram conversation. Tapping one works exactly like in the widget: the label appears as the visitor's message and the AI answers the prompt. Changes you save here re-sync to your connected pages automatically.