Set up Vex AI for the first time

What Vex is

Vex is Yaplet's AI agent. It reads your knowledge base, documents, and public URLs, then answers visitor questions automatically in natural language. The same Vex brain also powers AI assist features in the inbox (AI Reply, AI Summary, AI Rephrase) and the AI voice agent on phone calls — so every knowledge source you connect here benefits all three surfaces.

Two ways to create a Vex chatbot

Go to Automation → AI and click Add Vex. You'll see two options:

• AI Setup (Chatbot): Paste your website URL and Vex scrapes it automatically, pre-filling the persona, tone, and context. Good for a quick first look.
• Start from scratch: Configure everything manually. Use this if you want full control from the beginning or if AI Setup produces a result you'd rewrite anyway.

Heads-up on Start from scratch: a second step asks for the chatbot's name and shows two preselected checkboxes — Knowledge Base and Documentation. Both get created alongside the chatbot unless you uncheck them, so don't be surprised to see new entries appear in your sidebar.

Step 1 — Configure AI Identity (Settings → AI Identity)

On the chatbot page, open Settings → AI Identity and fill in:

• Chatbot name: The name visitors see in the widget (for example "Vex" or your own brand name).
• Company name: Used in responses so Vex can refer to your brand correctly.
• Website URL: Your company's website — Vex may reference it when helping visitors.
• Custom instructions: Anything specific Vex should always do or never do. See Write a system prompt and tone for Vex for a full guide.
• Emoji usage: Toggle on or off to match your brand voice.
• When the AI Doesn't Know the Answer: Choose how Vex behaves when it can't find an answer in your sources — Politely decline (recommended), Transfer to a human agent, or Answer anyway. The last option lets Vex fall back on general knowledge and may produce made-up information; pick it only if that trade-off is fine for your use case.

Step 2 — Add your first knowledge source

Knowledge for Vex comes in from two different places. Content that lives on the chatbot — plain text, FAQs, uploaded documents, public URLs, and API tools — is managed on the chatbot's top-level Context tab. Product feeds live on the separate Products tab.

Your Knowledge Base and Documentation sites attach at the widget level, not the chatbot — open the widget's edit page and connect them there. Anything connected to the widget automatically flows into Vex.

Your Yaplet knowledge base is the highest-value source — add it first. Vex auto-syncs whenever you publish a new article. For the full source-by-source walkthrough, see Add knowledge sources to Vex.

Step 3 — Link Vex to a widget

A Vex chatbot doesn't go live until it's connected to at least one widget. The link is made from the widget's edit page, not from the chatbot — go to Widgets, open the widget you want Vex on, and pick this chatbot in its settings. Settings → General on the chatbot shows which widgets are connected, but the actual assignment is done on the widget side. One Vex chatbot can serve multiple widgets; one widget can only have one AI chatbot active at a time.

Step 4 — Review handoff settings (Settings → Agent Handoff)

On Settings → Agent Handoff, decide what happens when Vex can't answer — or when a visitor explicitly asks for a human. The defaults work for most setups, but it's worth reviewing before going live. Full details: Control when Vex hands off to a human.

Step 5 — Enable and test (Settings → General + linked widget)

1. On Settings → General, confirm Enable Chatbot is toggled on.
2. Click Save in the page header to persist your changes.
3. To preview Vex in the dashboard, open the linked widget's edit page and click Preview there — the chatbot page itself has no Preview button. Test a few questions from your knowledge base.
4. When everything looks right, open your live site and confirm the widget replies correctly.

Pre-launch checklist

• Chatbot name and company name filled in

• At least one knowledge source connected and processed (green status)

• Custom instructions written (or intentionally left blank)

• Handoff settings reviewed

• Widget linked and enable toggle on

• Preview tested via the linked widget — at least 5 representative questions

Next steps

Add more content: Add knowledge sources to Vex. Tune the persona: Write a system prompt and tone for Vex. After you've had real conversations, check what Vex couldn't answer: Find knowledge gaps Vex couldn't answer.