Your first conversation

This is the canonical walkthrough for your first real conversation. It assumes your workspace is set up, your AI key is in, and at least one channel is connected. If not, start with Quick start.

What lands in the inbox

Every inbound message — email reply, chat widget, Slack Connect mention — creates or updates a conversation in your shared inbox. Within a few seconds of arrival you will see:

• The customer's message and full thread history.
• A topic label: bug, billing, how-to, feedback, abuse, spam, or other.
• A priority label: low, normal, high, or urgent.
• A confidence score from 0 to 100 percent.
• An AI-drafted reply ready in the composer.

Customer context loads in the right rail: Stripe subscription, HubSpot deal stage, linked Linear issues, GitHub commits. See Customer 360.

Step 1: Find the conversation

Open the inbox. The default filter is All. Switch to one of these depending on how you work:

• Unassigned — nothing has been picked up yet.
• Mine — assigned to you.
• Mentions — someone @mentioned you internally.
• AI handled — the AI sent a reply on autopilot, useful for spot-checking.
• Closed — done.

Full reference: Inbox filters.

Click the conversation you want to handle. Or hit j and k to move down and up the list, then Enter to open. Keyboard shortcuts are listed in Keyboard shortcuts.

Step 2: Read the AI draft

The composer is pre-filled with an AI draft. Read it once before doing anything else. The draft pulls from:

• Your knowledge base.
• This customer's history.
• Stripe, HubSpot, Linear, and GitHub context for this customer.
• Macros and saved replies.

Three signals tell you how much to trust it:

• Confidence score. Above 85 percent, the draft is usually fine. Below 60, treat it as a starting point.
• Sources cited at the bottom of the draft. If the cited articles are right, the answer is probably right.
• Topic label. Billing and bug reports often need human verification. How-to questions are usually safe.

See AI receipts for how to read source citations.

Step 3: Decide what to do

Three paths:

Send as is

Hit Cmd+Enter (or click Send). The draft goes out, the conversation moves to the customer's queue, and it stays open until they reply or you close it.

Edit and send

Click into the composer, edit, and send. Edits feed back into the AI's learning loop so future drafts get closer to your voice. See Learned QA.

Reject and reply yourself

Clear the draft and write your own reply. The AI takes the rejection signal and adjusts. This is fine and expected, especially in your first week.

Step 4: Use internal tools as needed

A few moves that are commonly useful:

• Internal note. Toggle to internal mode and write a comment your teammates see but the customer does not. See Internal notes.
• Mention a teammate. Type @name in an internal note to ping them. They get a notification and the conversation appears in their Mentions filter. See Mentions.
• Assign. Hand the conversation to a specific person. See Assignment.
• Snooze. If you need to wait on the customer or an external answer, snooze it for an hour, a day, or until a specific time. See Snoozing conversations.
• Tag. Add tags for reporting, like feature-request or enterprise. See Tags.

Step 5: Close when done

When the customer is satisfied or the question is fully answered, hit Cmd+Shift+K to close. Closing:

• Triggers a CSAT survey if you have one configured for that channel. The customer rates 😡 1, 😞 2, 😐 3, 🙂 4, 😀 5. See CSAT overview.
• Stops auto-replies and routing rules.
• Counts toward your resolution metrics. See Reports overview.

If the customer replies after closing, the conversation reopens automatically and lands back in the inbox.

What if the AI sent already?

If you have autopilot on for this topic and confidence band, the AI may have already replied before you opened the conversation. You will see the conversation in the AI handled filter with a marker on the message showing it was sent autonomously.

Spot-check AI handled conversations daily for your first month. If you see anything off, edit the AI's voice, length, or guardrails and the next round will be tighter. See AI voice and Guardrails.

Common first-day issues

• The AI is not drafting. Check your key and spend cap. See AI not drafting.
• The draft is too long or too short. Adjust AI length.
• The voice feels off. Tune AI voice with examples of your best replies.

Next steps

• Inbox overview — the full inbox tour.
• Keyboard shortcuts — go faster.
• Autopilot — when you are ready to let the AI send.