Frequently asked questions
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Privacy & Data
Does Canary use my customers' conversations to train AI models?
No. Conversation data is never used to train, fine-tune, or otherwise improve any AI model — ours or anyone else's. Your customers' support conversations belong to you, and that is the only place they are used.
When the assistant answers a question, it processes the conversation in real time and returns a response. The AI provider we route through operates under a zero-retention agreement: they do not store or log the content of those calls after the response is delivered.
Where is my conversation data stored?
Conversation data is stored in infrastructure hosted in the United States. Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Workspace owners can export or permanently delete all conversation history at any time from their dashboard — no support ticket required.
Do you share my data with third parties?
We do not sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for their own marketing or training purposes. We work with service providers (cloud hosting, email delivery, analytics) who access data only to perform their services and are contractually obligated to protect it. For a full list of categories, see our Privacy Policy.
Is Canary GDPR and CCPA compliant?
We are committed to compliance with applicable data protection laws including GDPR and CCPA. Workspace owners can export or delete end-user conversation data on demand, and we support data subject access requests. If you need a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) for your deployment, please reach out to us at privacy@assistantcanary.com.
Can I delete all conversation history?
Yes. Workspace owners can permanently delete all conversation history for any client from the dashboard. You can also set a rolling retention window so history older than a chosen number of days is automatically purged.
How the AI Works
How does the assistant decide what to say?
Every answer is grounded in the knowledge base you build. When a customer asks a question, the assistant searches your uploaded content — FAQs, product docs, support articles, brand guidelines — and constructs a reply from those sources. If the answer is not in your knowledge base, the assistant says so rather than guessing. It cannot and does not draw on information from other companies' customers.
What stops the assistant from making things up?
Our guiding principle is: source-cited or silent. The assistant only states something if it can point to a passage in your knowledge base that supports it. When it cannot find a solid source, it tells the customer it does not know and offers to escalate to a human agent. Operators can also configure topic guardrails that block specific subjects outright.
Can the assistant match my brand voice?
Yes — this is a core feature, not an afterthought. During onboarding you define tone settings, a greeting style, and example responses. You can also upload brand guidelines directly to the knowledge base. The assistant is instructed to write in your style, not in generic AI prose.
What happens when the assistant cannot help?
You choose the escalation path. Options include collecting the customer's details for a callback, routing to a live-chat queue, or directing them to a support email. The assistant clearly signals to the customer when it is handing off, so there is no awkward dead-end.
Does Canary support languages other than English?
Yes. The assistant can understand and respond in the language your customer writes in, as long as your knowledge base contains content the assistant can reference. If your knowledge base is English-only, answers will be translated but accuracy depends on the quality of the source material.
Plans & Billing
Is there a free trial?
Yes — 14 days, no card required. Trial includes 500 messages per billing period, 25 MB of knowledge storage, 2 channels (web widget and hosted page), Unlimited seats and 2 custom actions. Command Center modules, including Inbox, CRM, tasks, estimates and invoices, are available on Trial, Growth and Scale, subject to role, client permissions and enabled products. Channel and usage allowances still apply.
How is pricing calculated?
Pricing is based on plan tier, messages, knowledge storage, channels and contacts — not seat count or conversation counts. Growth and Scale are both $499/mo. Launch pricing — a limited-time launch promotion. Trial stops at its 500-message limit; upgrade to continue. Growth and Scale keep running past their included messages and bill metered overage. The first 15 contacts are free. Contacts 16–25: $4.99 per contact per month; Contacts 26–50: $3.99 per contact per month; Contacts 51+: $2.99 per contact per month. See the Pricing page for current plan details.
Can I cancel at any time?
Yes. There are no long-term contracts. You can downgrade or cancel your subscription at any time from the billing section of your workspace. Your data remains accessible until the end of the billing period, after which it is deleted per our retention policy.
Can I run the assistant for multiple brands or clients?
Yes. Each workspace can manage multiple clients, each with its own knowledge base, branding, and configuration. This is designed for agencies and operators who support several brands from a single account. Each client's data is fully isolated from the others.
Getting Started
How long does it take to go live?
Most teams have a working assistant within a day. The fastest path is to paste in a few dozen FAQ answers, configure the greeting and tone, then embed the widget. You can keep adding and refining content in the background while it handles real conversations.
How does the widget get added to my site?
You copy a single script tag from the Command Center and paste it into your site's HTML, or install our npm package if you prefer. No server-side changes are required. The widget loads asynchronously and does not affect your page's Core Web Vitals.
What support is available during setup?
All plans include access to our documentation and onboarding guides. Paid plans also include email support with a guaranteed response time. If you want a hands-on onboarding call, get in touch — we are happy to walk through your specific setup.
Platform overview
What is Canary?
Canary (product name Canary) is a multi-surface AI operations platform that lets growing teams deploy brand-faithful AI agents and manage the full customer lifecycle from a single operator dashboard. It started as a white-label chat widget and has grown into a full product suite.
What are the main surfaces that make up the platform?
Fifteen surfaces in total: the AI Agent Suite, Command Center, Unified Inbox, Training Studio, Automation Engine, CRM & Sales Suite, AI Secretary, Accounting & Finance Sync, Knowledge Base, SEO & Content Tools, Social & Listening, VoIP & AI Receptionist, a Mobile App, the public Marketing Site, and the Brand Hub.
Who are the people and systems involved in running the platform?
Definition3 operators provision clients and monitor logs; workspace owners manage billing and invite team members; workspace members (admins/editors) run the inbox, CRM, training, and scheduling tools; end-customer site visitors and callers interact with the AI agent; Definition3 engineering and product own the build and roadmap; and integration partners include QuickBooks, Xero, Google, Slack, Twilio, and Stripe, among others.
Is the platform multi-tenant?
Yes. Every row in the client table belongs to an account, and every protected route resolves the requesting account and only returns data that account owns. Cross-account access returns a 404, not a 403, specifically to avoid leaking the existence of other accounts' data. Public widget endpoints are scoped by client slug instead.
What's the technology stack behind the platform?
A pnpm monorepo on Node.js 24 and TypeScript 5.9, with an Express 5 API, React + Vite frontends, Drizzle ORM over PostgreSQL with the pgvector extension, and Tailwind v4 with shadcn/ui components.
AI Agent Suite & widget
What is the AI Agent Suite?
It's the embeddable chat widget, hosted chat pages, and voice AI receptionist. Each agent is keyed by a client slug, styled with that client's own branding tokens, and grounded in that client's knowledge via hybrid RAG.
How do I add the chat widget to a client's website?
By dropping in a single script tag served at /embed/:slug/canary.js, with the agent's configuration served at /embed/:slug/config.json. Acceptance criteria for the platform explicitly require that the widget can be embedded on a third-party page using only that script tag.
Which AI models power the conversations?
OpenAI's gpt-5.4 is primary, with Anthropic's claude-sonnet-4-6 as fallback, both accessed via Replit AI Integrations so no operator API key is required for chat itself.
How does the AI know a client's specific information?
Through hybrid retrieval-augmented generation (RAG): a primary path using pgvector cosine similarity (with an ivfflat index) over text chunked into 500 characters with 60-character overlap, and a Postgres full-text search fallback (to_tsquery + GIN index) for when embeddings aren't available.
What embedding model is used, and whose API key powers it?
OpenAI's text-embedding-3-small (1536 dimensions), called using the operator's own OPENAI_API_KEY, since Replit AI Integrations don't expose an embeddings endpoint.
Can I see how the widget will look before it goes live?
Yes — there's a live widget preview while editing branding, delivered as part of the initial build (milestone M3, marked Done).
Does one client's usage spike affect other clients on the platform?
No. Per-client rate limiting is in place specifically so that one tenant cannot exhaust shared capacity (milestone M4, marked Done).
Does the AI cite where its answers come from?
Yes. The platform includes answer citations, end-user feedback collection, hallucination guardrails, and a refusal-explanation flow that lets end users see why an answer was refused and rephrase their question.
What happens to conversations the AI handles poorly?
They feed a continuous-learning loop: flagged conversations become proposals in Training Studio, which are reviewed and promoted into knowledge base updates (golden Q&A entries).
Which channels can the AI agent actually talk to customers on?
8 supported channel types: web widget, hosted page, Slack, SMS, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, email, VoIP. Trial includes 2 (web widget and hosted page); Growth allows 7 enabled channel types; Scale allows unlimited channels.
Can the agent do more than just answer questions in chat?
Yes — inline booking, lead capture, payment collection, and custom API action calls are all shown inline in the chat widget (milestone M11, marked Done).
Is outbound traffic from custom actions safe from abuse?
Yes — custom HTTP actions block private-network calls (an SSRF guard) as part of the platform's security hardening.
Command Center (operator dashboard)
What is Command Center?
The operator dashboard where workspace owners provision clients, manage knowledge bases, tune AI configuration, monitor conversations, and run day-to-day business operations. It's accessed via both web and mobile.
Is Command Center a light or dark theme?
Light theme — operators were switched from dark to light as a completed milestone (#16), and a later request to add a light/dark toggle (#38) was archived, meaning light is the current, settled design.
What routes/pages exist inside Command Center?
Dozens, spanning inbox, tickets, the AI secretary, onboarding, client management, integrations, documents, agreements, file vault, service catalog, playbooks, product planning, valuations, sentiment index, ROI estimator, deal pipeline, estimates, notes, a file converter, AI files, time tracking, screenshot diff, fleet tracking, geo mapping, landing pages, proposals, and account/auth pages.
Unified Inbox & channels
What is the Unified Inbox?
A multi-channel inbox spanning web, Slack, SMS/WhatsApp, Teams, and email, with human-in-the-loop escalation, operator reply, and ticket management.
Can operators reply from the inbox out to any channel?
Yes — operators can reply from the inbox back to SMS, WhatsApp, Slack, Teams, and email, not just the channel a conversation originated on.
Does handoff survive a server restart?
Yes — handoff conversations are built to survive a server restart and to scale across multiple servers.
Can I see the health of my channel connections?
Yes — the Channels tab shows channel and provider connection health.
What analytics do I get per channel?
Deflection rate, CSAT, time-to-resolution, and a topic explorer, broken out per channel.
Can a super-admin see conversations across every client at once?
Yes — there's a Unified Inbox view across all clients specifically for super-admin operators.
Are handoff notifications sent as real emails?
Yes — handoff notifications go out as real emails to the notify address, not just log lines.
Training Studio & AI quality
What is Training Studio?
The interface for reviewing flagged conversations, correcting agent responses inline, and promoting fixes to the knowledge base through golden Q&A and proposal workflows.
How is answer quality monitored over time?
Through nightly quality evals that run automatically, plus a daily Answer Quality digest email sent to client owners.
Is there a sentiment index?
Yes — the Sentiment Index module provides real-time analysis of customer sentiment.
Automation Engine
What is the Automation Engine?
A no-code workflow builder for multi-step actions across connected tools.
What can trigger an automation?
Conversation events, schedules, or webhooks.
CRM & Sales Suite
What's included in the CRM & Sales Suite?
A deal pipeline, contact management, an estimates & proposals builder with E-Sign, outreach sequences and message templates, a valuations module, and an ROI estimator.
Can clients e-sign proposals?
Yes — the estimates & proposals builder includes E-Sign capability, and there's a public proposal viewer page on the marketing site for that purpose.
Can I export or email the ROI estimate?
Yes — the ROI estimator supports PDF export and email delivery, and real ROI emails are sent to clients alongside billing receipts.
AI Secretary & scheduling
What does the AI Secretary do?
It's an intelligent assistant for scheduling, task management, and calendar coordination across workspace members.
Does it integrate with Google Calendar?
Yes — calendar features include Google Calendar sync, booking pages, and visibility into colleague availability.
Is there time tracking?
Yes, a dedicated Time Tracking module is part of the CRM & Sales tooling.
Accounting & finance sync
Which accounting platforms does Canary sync with?
QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Zapier, using a provider-agnostic OAuth 2.0 integration.
How are accounting credentials stored?
OAuth tokens are encrypted with AES-GCM before storage.
Is the sync real-time or scheduled?
Both — it runs incrementally on a nightly schedule, on manual trigger, and via HMAC-verified webhooks. QuickBooks syncing uses MetaData.LastUpdatedTime and Xero uses If-Modified-Since to pull only what's changed.
What data comes over from accounting systems?
Invoices, bills, payments, and customers — customer records are also extracted into CRM contacts, enriched via Apollo.
Knowledge base
What sources can feed the knowledge base?
Continuous ingestion from Notion, Help Scout, sitemaps, manual uploads (PDF, DOCX, MD, TXT), and external data APIs.
Can admins upload PDF and Word documents directly?
Yes — admins can upload PDF and Word documents to the knowledge base, stored via object storage, as part of the initial knowledge-ingestion milestone.
Can I filter the knowledge base by where content came from?
This is on the roadmap — filtering the knowledge base by source (external sync vs. manual upload) is currently in draft status, dependent on the external knowledge sync work.
What happens if a knowledge sync fails?
Workspace owners are alerted when a knowledge sync fails after three attempts.
Can I re-crawl a client's site to keep answers current?
Yes — users can re-crawl their site on demand to keep answers fresh, and the initial crawl runs in the background so onboarding doesn't feel stuck.
File Vault & AI Files
Where do files live, and can they sync from cloud storage?
In the File Vault, which syncs with Google Drive and OneDrive/SharePoint.
Can I ask questions directly against uploaded documents?
Yes — AI Files provides RAG-based document Q&A, separate from the general knowledge base.
Is there a file conversion tool?
Yes, a File Converter tool is included in Command Center's tools section.
SEO, social & listening
What SEO tools are available?
SEO report generation, Google Search Console sync, and content visibility tooling, plus a dedicated SEO report page on the marketing site.
Can I schedule social posts from the platform?
Yes — social post scheduling is included alongside social listening, a sentiment index, and cross-channel analytics.
VoIP & AI Receptionist
Can the AI answer phone calls?
Yes — the VoIP & AI Receptionist surface handles voice channel calls with AI-driven call intake, transcription, and escalation routing.
What powers the voice and transcription?
OpenAI TTS for speech output and Whisper for transcription, used for both training recordings and the live VoIP receptionist.
Mobile app
Is there a mobile app?
Yes — companion iOS and Android apps built with Expo/React Native.
What can I do from the mobile app?
The full Unified Inbox, CRM, and push notifications for escalations while on the go.
How are login credentials stored on mobile?
Via expo-secure-store, with push notifications delivered through Expo Push.
Marketing site (AssistantCanary.com)
What pages does the public marketing site have?
Homepage, features, pricing, integrations, about, blog (with individual post pages), contact, a Command Center overview page, a design-partners/early-access page, FAQs, download, sitemap, privacy policy, and an end-user license agreement.
Is there a way for prospects to view and sign a proposal online?
Yes, via the public proposal viewer page, which supports E-Sign.
Is the marketing site up to date with the full platform?
A front-end rebuild reflecting the complete current feature set is underway now (milestone M27, status: In progress) — it's the one major milestone not yet marked Done.
Brand Hub
What is the Brand Hub?
A super-admin portal that renders this Statement of Work, the Brand Standards design system, a wireframe gallery, and compliance/subprocessor documentation.
Who can access the Brand Hub?
It's gated behind super-admin email verification.
How does the Brand Hub stay in sync with the actual product?
It mirrors Command Center's theme tokens exactly, and living-document generators (run via pnpm brand:refresh) regenerate the SOW's surface and status tables directly from the codebase, so brand or documentation drift isn't possible.
What's the brand's visual identity — colors and type?
The palette centers on a signal yellow (#FFD23F), coral (#FF5E5B), cyan (#3FD2C7), lime (#C7F464), and violet (#7B5EA7), against ink (#0B0B0F) and paper (#FAFAF7) neutrals. Display type is Plus Jakarta Sans, body copy is Inter, and code/mono content uses JetBrains Mono.
Security, identity & compliance
What single sign-on options are supported?
SAML 2.0 and OIDC, with identity-provider auto-discovery, signed metadata import, and secret rotation.
Is automated user provisioning supported?
Yes, via SCIM 2.0, so identity providers can manage members automatically.
Can I sign in with Google or LinkedIn?
Yes, social login is supported for both.
What roles and permissions exist?
Role-based access control with owner, admin, and editor roles, plus workspace member invitations.
Is there an audit log?
Yes — with plain-English explanations next to each event, a weekly digest emailed to workspace owners, and instant alerts for high-risk events. Admins and members can opt into the digest, and owners can route alerts to email, Slack, or Teams per workspace, review recent alert history, and filter/search it.
How does IdP certificate management work?
Signing certificates can be auto-loaded from metadata XML or a URL, imported metadata is verified as signed by the IdP before being trusted, and certificate refresh is scheduled automatically.
Is there a public status page?
Yes, a public status page is included as part of the enterprise/security milestone.
What protects against XSS and similar attacks?
Dedicated hardening work, including fixes for hosted-page color-injection XSS and CSS-context XSS in hosted-page inline styles, plus general SSRF guarding and rate limiting.
What happens to end-user PII in conversations?
The platform includes PII redaction and defined conversation retention policies.
Billing & pricing
What billing plans exist?
Trial: free trial, 500 messages, 25 MB knowledge storage, 2 channels, unlimited seats and 2 custom actions. Growth: $499/mo launch pricing, 10,000 messages, 2 GB knowledge storage, 7 channels, unlimited seats and 8 custom actions. Scale: $499/mo launch pricing, 100,000 messages, 2 GB knowledge storage, unlimited channels, unlimited seats and unlimited custom actions. Launch pricing — a limited-time launch promotion.
How are usage limits enforced?
Trial: free trial, 500 messages, 25 MB knowledge storage, 2 channels, unlimited seats and 2 custom actions. Growth: $499/mo launch pricing, 10,000 messages, 2 GB knowledge storage, 7 channels, unlimited seats and 8 custom actions. Scale: $499/mo launch pricing, 100,000 messages, 2 GB knowledge storage, unlimited channels, unlimited seats and unlimited custom actions. Trial stops at its 500-message limit; upgrade to continue. Growth and Scale keep running past their included messages and bill metered overage.
How does contact overage pricing work?
The first 15 contacts are free. Contacts 16–25: $4.99 per contact per month; Contacts 26–50: $3.99 per contact per month; Contacts 51+: $2.99 per contact per month.
Do clients get billing receipts and usage summaries automatically?
Yes — real billing receipts and ROI emails are sent to clients, and there's an end-to-end tested upgrade flow.
Integrations
What third-party tools does Canary integrate with?
Google Calendar, Google Drive, OneDrive/SharePoint, Notion, Help Scout, QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier, Shopify, Stripe, Apollo (contact enrichment), Canva, and MeetAlfred.
Is there a Canva integration?
Yes, a Canva App panel integration is part of the delivered scope.
Are there browser or CMS plugins?
Chrome extension and WordPress plugin scaffolds exist as part of brand & ops deliverables.
What's not available yet
Can a customer sign up and self-provision without an operator?
Not yet — self-service customer signup without an operator provisioning step is currently out of scope (planned).
Is there a drag-and-drop page builder for client widgets?
Not yet built as a live product surface, though the underlying branding system it would sit on is already live. It's tracked as a future milestone (M28: Planned).
Can the AI stream audio beyond current voice features?
No — per-message streaming audio modalities beyond the current TTS/VoIP setup are out of scope today.
Is there a native desktop app?
No — a native desktop app for macOS or Windows is not in scope.
Is the platform deployed across multiple regions?
No — it currently runs in a single region; multi-region deployment is not yet in place.
Action / Task Requests
Schedule a call with [contact] next Tuesday at 2pm
Done — I've booked [contact] for Tuesday at 2pm. Want me to send them a calendar invite too?
Create a landing page for our spring sale
I'll put together a draft — what's the offer, and who's the audience? Here's a first pass — it's saved as a draft in your Content section, ready to review.
Send an invoice reminder to [client]
I'll draft the reminder text for you to review and send — I don't send these automatically.
Call [contact] for me
I can't place outbound calls yet — RingCentral is connected for receiving calls and logging them, not for placing them. I can schedule a call on your calendar instead, or draft talking points.
General "How Do I / What Can Canary Do" Questions
What can you actually do?
I can answer questions using your knowledge base, help manage your inbox and CRM, draft content, schedule things on your calendar, and keep your accounting and files in sync. What would you like help with first?
How do I add the chat widget to my site?
Copy the script tag from your Command Center dashboard and paste it into your site's HTML — no server changes needed, and it won't slow your page down.
Can you write in my brand voice?
Yes — you can set your tone and greeting style, and upload brand guidelines to your knowledge base, and I'll write to match rather than sounding generic.
Is my data used to train AI models?
No — your conversations are never used to train any AI model, ours or anyone else's. They're processed in real time and belong to you.
Can I run this for multiple brands/clients?
Yes — each client gets its own knowledge base, branding, and configuration, fully isolated from the others.
What happens when you can't answer something?
I'll tell you I don't know rather than guess, and hand off based on however you've set up escalation — a callback request, live chat, or a support email.
Troubleshooting
My Google account disconnected — why?
That usually happens when a Google token expires or access was revoked. Head to your Integrations panel and reconnect Google — it only takes a second.
Why didn't I get notified about a handoff?
Handoff alerts go to whatever address or channel you've set for notifications — want me to check your current notify settings, or update where these go?
My knowledge base isn't answering correctly
Flag that conversation and it'll go to Training Studio for review — once corrected, it becomes a permanent 'golden' answer so I don't repeat the mistake.
Why is my QuickBooks data out of date?
Syncs run nightly automatically, but you can trigger a manual sync right now if you don't want to wait.
My website crawl seems stuck
The first crawl runs in the background, so it won't feel finished right away — but you can trigger a fresh re-crawl any time to pull in the latest content.
I'm not receiving my billing emails
Receipts and ROI summaries go out automatically — worth checking spam first, then I can confirm the email address on file for your billing notifications.
Billing & Plan Questions
How much am I paying and why did it go up?
Pricing is based on plan tier, messages, knowledge storage, channels and contacts — not seat count or conversation counts. Growth and Scale are both $499/mo. Launch pricing — a limited-time launch promotion. Trial stops at its 500-message limit; upgrade to continue. Growth and Scale keep running past their included messages and bill metered overage. The first 15 contacts are free. Contacts 16–25: $4.99 per contact per month; Contacts 26–50: $3.99 per contact per month; Contacts 51+: $2.99 per contact per month.
Can I upgrade my plan right now?
Yes — head to the billing section of your workspace and pick the new plan. It takes effect right away, no need to contact anyone.
Can I cancel or downgrade?
Yes, any time, no long-term contract — your data stays accessible through the end of the current billing period.
Security & Compliance
Who can see my customer conversations?
Only your workspace — every account is fully isolated, and cross-account access isn't possible even by accident.
Can I delete all my data?
Yes — you can permanently delete all conversation history from your dashboard any time, no ticket required, or set a rolling retention window to auto-purge older history.
Do you support single sign-on for my team?
Yes — SAML 2.0 and OIDC are both supported, with auto-discovery and automatic certificate refresh, plus SCIM if your identity provider manages users automatically.
Can I control who on my team can do what?
Yes — owner, admin, and editor roles are built in, and you can invite team members directly into your workspace with the right role.
Multi-Channel & Inbox
Can customers reach me on WhatsApp?
Yes — WhatsApp, SMS, Slack, Teams, email, and your website widget all feed into the same inbox, so nothing gets missed.
Can I reply to a Slack message from here?
Yes — you can reply from the Unified Inbox out to Slack, WhatsApp, SMS, Teams, or email, whichever channel the conversation came in on.
How do I see which channels are working properly?
The Channels tab shows live connection health for every channel, plus per-channel stats like deflection rate and time-to-resolution.
Content & Knowledge Base Management
Can I upload our product manual?
Yes — PDF, Word, Markdown, or plain text all work. Upload it to your knowledge base and I'll start using it right away.
Can I control what topics you won't discuss?
Yes — you can set topic guardrails that block specific subjects outright, on top of me only answering from sourced material.
Mobile
Can I check my inbox from my phone?
Yes — the mobile app gives you the full Unified Inbox and CRM, plus push notifications when something needs your attention.
VoIP & AI Receptionist
Can the AI answer my business phone line?
Yes — I can handle call intake, transcribe the conversation, and route it to the right person if it needs a human.
What happens when a caller wants a human?
I'll route that as a callback request, live-chat handoff, or support-email ticket — I can't transfer you live on the call itself yet.
Can I get a transcript of calls?
Yes — every call is transcribed automatically, so you can review or search it later.
Can you call a customer back for me?
I can't place outbound calls yet — I can schedule the callback on your calendar or draft talking points instead.
Automation Engine
Can I set up a workflow without coding?
Yes — the Automation Engine is no-code. Tell me what should happen and when, and I'll help you build the workflow.
What can trigger an automation?
Conversation events, a schedule, or an incoming webhook — any of those can kick off a workflow.
Can you automatically follow up with leads who don't respond?
That's going to be a ready-made template — until it ships, I can build you a custom follow-up automation now so you're not waiting.
Can you help me write a PRD?
Yes — tell me about the feature and who it's for, and I'll help draft a PRD with user stories.
Can you prioritize my feature backlog?
Yes — I can score your backlog using RICE (reach, impact, confidence, effort) to help you see what to tackle first.
Can you build me a roadmap?
Yes — once we've prioritized your backlog, I can lay it out as a roadmap.
How is my site doing in search?
I can pull an SEO report and sync with Google Search Console to show you how you're performing.
Can you tell me what people are saying about us online?
Yes — social listening tracks mentions, and the Sentiment Index shows you the overall tone in real time.
Can you schedule social posts across all our platforms at once?
I can schedule a post to one connected account at a time — simultaneous posting across multiple platforms in one action isn't built yet, so I'd need to set each one up separately.
File Vault & AI Files
Can I ask questions about a contract I uploaded?
Yes — upload it and I can answer questions directly against that document.
Can I convert a file to a different format?
Yes — the File Converter tool handles that. What format do you need it in?
Where do my synced Drive/OneDrive files show up?
In your File Vault — once connected, everything syncs there automatically.
Can you draft a proposal for this deal?
Yes — I'll pull together an estimate and proposal for this deal. Want it sent for e-signature once it's ready?
Can a client sign this online?
Yes — send it through the proposal viewer and they can e-sign right there.
Can you estimate the ROI for a prospect?
Yes — I can put together an ROI estimate and export it as a PDF or email it directly.
What's this business worth?
Valuations isn't live yet — that section is a placeholder today. I can help you think through the numbers manually if that's useful in the meantime.
Can I track time spent on this client?
Yes — Time Tracking is built in as part of your CRM tools.
How do I get my whole team added?
Invite them from your workspace settings and assign each person owner, admin, or editor access.
Can I re-theme the widget later without starting over?
Yes — you can edit your branding any time, and you'll see the widget update live as you go.
Can I test everything before customers see it?
Yes — 14 days, no card required. Trial includes 500 messages per billing period, 25 MB of knowledge storage, 2 channels (web widget and hosted page), Unlimited seats and 2 custom actions. Command Center modules, including Inbox, CRM, tasks, estimates and invoices, are available on Trial, Growth and Scale, subject to role, client permissions and enabled products. Channel and usage allowances still apply.
Can I track my fleet or vehicles?
Fleet Tracking is on the roadmap but not live yet — that page is a placeholder today.
Can you map out where our customers or sites are located?
Geo Mapping is on the roadmap but not live yet — that page is a placeholder today.
Can I compare two versions of my site over time?
Yes — Screenshot Diff shows a real before/after comparison with a draggable divider, using either a custom URL or a saved client screenshot on each side.
Can I jot down quick notes?
Yes — there's a Notes section in your dashboard for exactly that.
Do you support Spanish?
Yes — I can understand and respond in whatever language your customer writes in.
Can this be fully branded as my own product with zero Canary branding visible?
Brand customization is available on every plan, subject to editor permissions. Powered by Canary attribution remains visible. Custom domains are not yet customer-available.
Can I use my own domain instead of assistantcanary.com?
Custom domains are coming. DNS setup exists, but managed HTTPS is not configured for customer use yet.
Can visitors book a meeting directly in the chat?
Yes — booking is available right inline in the chat widget, no redirect needed.
Can the widget collect leads automatically?
Yes — lead capture happens right in the conversation, and it flows straight into your CRM.
Can customers pay through the chat?
Yes — payment collection is built into the widget for the right use cases.
Can you call a custom API when someone asks something specific?
Yes — I can trigger custom HTTP actions for that, and outbound calls are protected against hitting private network addresses.
Can you connect to Zapier?
Yes — Zapier is connected at the account level, so it works the same across everything under this workspace.
Do you integrate with Shopify?
Yes — and you can connect multiple shops under one account if you run more than one storefront.
Can you enrich my contact data automatically?
Yes — contacts synced from your accounting data get enriched automatically through Apollo.
Can I create designs through Canva?
Yes — there's a Canva panel built right in.
Do you work with MeetAlfred for LinkedIn outreach?
Yes — that integration is connected at the account level.
Audit, Compliance & Alerts
Can I see a log of everything that happened in my account?
Yes — the audit log covers knowledge base edits, branding changes, billing, and action runs, each with a plain-English explanation.
Can I get alerted immediately if something risky happens?
Yes — high-risk audit events trigger instant alerts, on top of the regular weekly digest.
Can alerts go to Slack instead of email?
Yes — you can route alerts to email, Slack, or Teams, whichever your team actually checks.
Is there a status page I can share with customers?
Yes — there's a public status page you can point customers to directly.
What happens to personal information in conversations?
PII gets redacted, and there's a retention policy controlling how long conversation history sticks around.
Trust, Citations & Refusals
How do I know your answer is accurate?
I cite the source behind every answer, so you can check exactly where it came from.
What happens if I ask something you're not sure about?
I'll tell you I couldn't find a solid source rather than guess, and you can rephrase or ask something else.
Mobile Security
Is my mobile login secure?
Yes — credentials are stored securely on-device using the platform's secure storage, not in plain text.
Do I get push notifications for escalations?
Yes — you'll get a push notification the moment something needs your attention.
Automated User Provisioning
Can new employees get added automatically when I hire them?
Yes — if your identity provider supports SCIM, new hires get provisioned into Canary automatically without you adding them by hand.
Service Catalog & Playbooks
Can I see a list of services we offer clients?
Yes — your Service Catalog is fully database-backed. You can create, edit, delete, and reorder items, and export the whole thing to CSV.
Do you have a playbook for onboarding new customers?
Yes — Playbooks lets you add, edit, duplicate, and reorder steps, activate a playbook directly on a deal, and track progress as it moves along.
Documents & Agreements
Can I store contracts and agreements here?
Yes — there's a Documents section, plus a separate area for agreement templates.
Can I create a reusable contract template?
Yes — you can list, create, edit, and delete agreement templates, with full rich-text editing for the body.
Landing Pages
Can you build me a dedicated landing page for a campaign?
Yes — I'll draft it and it'll save as a page draft in your Content section for review before it goes live.
Deal Pipeline Management (Deeper)
Can you move this deal to the next stage?
Done — moved to the next stage. Want me to log a note on why it moved?
Which deals are at risk of stalling?
I can't flag stalled deals yet — the pipeline view is a forecasting calculator today, not a live activity tracker. I can help you think through which ones feel stale if you tell me about them.
Sentiment & Training (Deeper)
How do golden answers actually get created?
When a conversation gets flagged, it becomes a proposal in Training Studio — once your team reviews and approves the fix, it becomes a permanent golden answer.
Client/Account Management
Can I see a summary of all my clients in one place?
Yes — your Clients list shows every client, sorted alphabetically, with status at a glance.
Can I switch into a specific client's view directly?
Yes — click into that client and you'll be authenticated directly into their workspace, with an audited, single-use, short-lived token behind the scenes.
Meetings & Booking
Can prospects book time with me without emailing back and forth?
Yes — send them your booking page link and they can grab a slot directly.
If someone books through my link, does it land on my calendar automatically?
Yes — once Google Calendar's connected, bookings sync straight in.
Data Export & Portability
Can I export all my data if I decide to leave?
Yes — you can export or delete your conversation history on demand, no ticket needed.
Can I get my contacts exported as a CSV?
Yes — you can export selected contacts, or filter by tags, smart lists, score range, or custom fields first. One thing to know: exports cap at 5,000 records at a time.
Incidents & Downtime
Is Canary down right now?
Check the public status page — it'll show current uptime and any active incidents.
What happens to messages if there's an outage?
Once a message is saved, it usually survives — but I can't promise every in-flight response is guaranteed to complete during an outage. There isn't a durable retry queue for that yet.
Developer / API Questions
Do you have an API I can build against?
Yes. Workspace owners can create client-bound API keys in Command Center under Connections & Credentials → External API Keys. Send the key in the X-API-Key header; it is scoped to the selected client and tenant. The current routes, required scopes, and examples are documented below.
API reference
Base URL: https://assistantcanary.com/api/canary. Create keys in the Command Center; the full key is shown only once. Keep it on your server and store it in that server's secret manager, never in browser JavaScript or a public repository.
Available client-scoped routes are GET /crm/contacts, GET /crm/contacts/:id, POST /crm/contacts, GET /sequences, GET /sequences/:id, GET /sequence-templates, POST /sequences/:id/enrollments, GET|POST /workspace/activity-feed, and POST /integrations/website-inquiries. Each key must be granted the matching scope: crm.contacts.read, crm.contacts.create, sequences.read, sequences.enroll, activity-feed.read, activity-feed.write, or crm.inquiries.create.
Contact example (the key is read from a server-side environment variable):
curl 'https://assistantcanary.com/api/canary/crm/contacts?search=Acme' \
-H "X-API-Key: $CANARY_API_KEY"
curl -X POST 'https://assistantcanary.com/api/canary/crm/contacts' \
-H "X-API-Key: $CANARY_API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"name":"Jordan Doe","email":"jordan@example.com"}'Website inquiry intake accepts a unique externalSubmissionId, contact name, formType, and ISO submittedAt; it also accepts email or phone (at least one), company, address, service, message, and source page. A retry with the same submission ID returns the original record IDs (201 for a new submission, 200 for an idempotent replay). The caller cannot choose the client or workspace.
curl -X POST 'https://assistantcanary.com/api/canary/integrations/website-inquiries' \
-H "X-API-Key: $CANARY_API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"externalSubmissionId":"site-form-123","name":"Jordan Doe","email":"jordan@example.com","formType":"service","submittedAt":"2026-10-22T14:30:00Z","requestedService":"Inspection","message":"Please contact me"}'Can I get a webhook when a new lead comes in?
Provider-specific webhooks exist for things like accounting and voice — a general 'notify my system on any lead' webhook isn't a finished product yet. Let me confirm what's realistic for your case.
Legal / E-Sign
Is the e-signature legally binding?
E-Sign is built into the proposal flow — for a definitive answer on legal enforceability in your jurisdiction, that's worth checking with your own counsel rather than me asserting it.
Zapier Bridge for Non-Native Integrations
What should I do if a client asks to connect an app that isn't natively supported?
Check the request against the native-integration list (Google, Microsoft, iCloud, RingCentral, Twilio, Slack, QuickBooks, Xero, Shopify, Apollo, Canva, MeetAlfred, Stripe). If it's not on that list, it very likely connects through Zapier. Point the client to zapier.com/sign-up to create an account if they don't have one, then help them figure out the right Zap.
Can you connect to Notion, or pull tickets from Help Scout?
That's not natively connected yet — but you can bridge it through Zapier in the meantime. Set up a Zapier account here if you don't have one: zapier.com/sign-up, and I can help you figure out the right Zap.
Can you connect to an app that isn't on your integration list?
That's not one we connect to directly, but it's very likely supported through Zapier — they work with thousands of apps. Set up a Zapier account here if needed: zapier.com/sign-up, and I can help you find the right Zap once you're in.
Competitive Positioning
Is this just a chatbot?
No — the chat widget is one piece. Underneath it you also get a CRM, inbox, automation engine, accounting sync, and content tools, all working off the same knowledge base.
How is this different from Intercom or Drift?
I can walk you through what Canary does — CRM, automations, accounting sync, and content tools alongside the chat — but I'd rather not make specific claims about a competitor's product I don't have verified details on.
Pricing Objections
Is this worth it if I only get a few customer questions a day?
Yes — 14 days, no card required. Trial includes 500 messages per billing period, 25 MB of knowledge storage, 2 channels (web widget and hosted page), Unlimited seats and 2 custom actions. Command Center modules, including Inbox, CRM, tasks, estimates and invoices, are available on Trial, Growth and Scale, subject to role, client permissions and enabled products. Channel and usage allowances still apply. Pricing is based on plan tier, messages, knowledge storage, channels and contacts — not seat count or conversation counts. Growth and Scale are both $499/mo. Launch pricing — a limited-time launch promotion. Trial stops at its 500-message limit; upgrade to continue. Growth and Scale keep running past their included messages and bill metered overage. The first 15 contacts are free. Contacts 16–25: $4.99 per contact per month; Contacts 26–50: $3.99 per contact per month; Contacts 51+: $2.99 per contact per month.
What happens if I go over my message limit?
Trial stops at its 500-message limit; upgrade to continue. Growth and Scale keep running past their included messages and bill metered overage.
Translation & Localized Content
Can you translate this landing page into Spanish?
There's no dedicated one-click translation for pages yet — but I can draft a Spanish version for you through the regular AI writing assistant, just as a fresh draft rather than an automatic translation.
Knowledge Sync Failure Handling
What happens if a knowledge sync keeps failing?
You'll get alerted automatically once it's failed three times in a row, so it won't fail silently.
Can I manually retry a failed sync?
For your knowledge base — yes, there's a real retry that resets failed sources back to pending. For accounting (QuickBooks/Xero), there's a manual 'sync now,' but it won't specifically reset something that failed — it's a fresh sync, not a targeted retry.
Rate Limits & Usage Caps
Why did the widget stop responding to visitors?
Per-client rate limiting keeps one account's spike from affecting others — if you're hitting that ceiling, it's usually a sign of real traffic growth, which is a good problem. Want me to check your current usage?
Widget Customization
Can I set a custom greeting message?
Yes — greeting style is one of the things you define during onboarding, along with your overall tone.
Can I change where the chat bubble appears on the page?
Yes — bottom-left or bottom-right, set in your branding settings. One flag if you're on WordPress specifically: there's a matching setting in the plugin, but it isn't actually wired through yet, so use the main branding setting instead.
Contact Data Hygiene
Can you merge duplicate contacts?
Yes for contacts — I can suggest duplicates and merge them once you confirm. Companies don't have this yet, so those would need to be merged manually.
Estimates & Currency
Can I create an estimate in a currency other than USD?
The data model supports other currencies, but the estimate builder itself is hard-set to USD right now with no way to switch it — so in practice, no, not yet.
Team Performance Reporting
Can I see how each team member is performing in the inbox?
Analytics break down by channel today — not yet by individual team member. The data needed for that is already captured, it's just not surfaced in a report yet.
GDPR — Individual Requests
A customer asked us to delete just their data, not everything — can we do that?
Yes, through Tickets — you can delete one specific conversation there, with a 30-second undo. That option isn't in the main Live Inbox view yet, so use Tickets for a single-record deletion.
Training Studio — Admin Workflow
As an admin, how do I correct a wrong answer directly?
Open Training Studio, find the flagged conversation, and correct the response inline — once approved, it becomes a permanent golden answer.
Bot Disclosure (End-Customer Facing)
Am I talking to a real person or a bot?
I'm an AI assistant — happy to help, and I'll connect you with a person if you'd rather.
Accessibility
Is the chat widget accessible for screen readers?
There's real keyboard and screen-reader support — focusable controls, keyboard sending, some ARIA labels — but it's not a complete accessibility implementation yet. I wouldn't call it fully WCAG-compliant today.
Data Residency
Can you host my data in Europe instead of the US?
Not today — everything currently runs in a single US region. Multi-region hosting isn't available yet.
Frustrated Customer / Escalation Handling
I'm really frustrated, nothing is working
I hear you, and I'm sorry this has been frustrating. Let me get you to a person right now rather than keep troubleshooting back and forth.
This is the third time I've asked this and gotten a bad answer
That's on me — I'm flagging this conversation for review so we fix it properly, and connecting you with a person now.
Industry-Specific Compliance
Is this HIPAA compliant for my medical practice?
I can't confirm HIPAA compliance without checking with the team directly — this isn't something I should guess at given what's at stake for your practice.
Can this be used for a law firm with privilege concerns?
That's a real question worth a direct answer from the team rather than me guessing — let me flag it.
Refunds & Billing Disputes
Can I get a refund for last month?
I don't want to promise something on refund policy without checking — let me connect you with the billing team on this one.
Seats & Team Limits
How many people can be on my plan?
Trial, Growth, Scale all include unlimited seats at no additional charge.
Calendar Conflict Handling
What happens if two people try to book the same time slot?
There's a real overlap check that normally blocks a double-booking — but under the hood it's not fully protected against two people booking at the exact same instant, so it's not bulletproof yet.
Timezone Handling
Will booking times show in my customer's timezone or mine?
Right now, booking is handled in UTC under the hood, so timezone display isn't automatically localized per person yet — worth keeping in mind if you have customers across regions.
Contract Renewal Reminders
Can you remind clients when their contract is up for renewal?
That's going to be a ready-made template — until it ships, I can set up a custom reminder automation for you now.
Reviews & Testimonials
Can you automatically ask happy customers for a review?
That's going to be a ready-made template — until it ships, I can set up a custom review-request automation for you now.
Spam & Abuse Protection
How do you stop bots or spam from flooding the chat?
Rate limiting and message-length limits protect against volume spikes, and there's a honeypot on our lead-capture forms — but there's no CAPTCHA or dedicated bot-detection on chat itself yet.
Guardrail Configuration
Can I make sure you never discuss pricing or refunds and just hand those off to a person?
Yes — you can set topic guardrails that block specific subjects outright, so I'll route those straight to a person instead of answering.
Account Recovery & Security
I forgot my password — how do I get back in?
Use the 'forgot password' link on the login page — you'll get a reset link by email.
Can I set up two-factor authentication?
Not yet, functionally — there's a setting that looks like it configures 2FA, but it isn't wired up to actually enforce anything at login yet. SSO through your identity provider is the real option today if you need stronger login security.
Support Tiers
What kind of support do I get if something breaks?
All plans include docs and onboarding guides. Paid plans add email support with a guaranteed response time — and if you want a hands-on call, just ask.