Welcome to the comprehensive documentation for LiveDesk, your AI-powered customer support helpdesk. This guide will help you set up, configure, and maximize the potential of your customer support system.

Quick Start Guide

Follow these steps to get your AI-powered helpdesk up and running:

System Requirements

Dashboard Overview

The LiveDesk dashboard is your central command center for managing customer support. It provides real-time insights, conversation management, and configuration options all in one place.

Navigation & Layout

The dashboard uses a responsive sidebar layout:

• Left Sidebar: Main navigation with all dashboard sections
• Top Header: Search, notifications, and user menu
• Main Content Area: Dynamic content based on selected section
• Mobile: Collapsible sidebar with bottom navigation

Organization Switcher

If you belong to multiple organizations, you can switch between them using the organization switcher in the sidebar. Each organization has completely isolated data including:

• Separate knowledge base
• Independent conversations
• Distinct team members and permissions
• Individual billing and subscription

Knowledge Base

The Knowledge Base is the foundation of your AI-powered support. It stores all the information your AI uses to answer customer questions accurately and consistently.

Uploading Documents

To add documents to your knowledge base:

1. Navigate to Knowledge Base in the dashboard sidebar
2. Click the "Add Document" button
3. Select your file(s) or drag and drop them into the upload area
4. Wait for processing - documents are automatically chunked and embedded
5. Once status shows "Ready", your AI can use the content

Supported Formats

URL Scraping

You can import content directly from web pages:

1. Click "Add from URL" in the Knowledge Base
2. Enter the full URL (must be publicly accessible)
3. Click "Scrape" to fetch the content
4. Review the extracted content before confirming

This is ideal for importing help center articles, blog posts, or product pages.

Document Management

The Knowledge Base table shows all your documents with their status:

You can delete documents at any time. Deleted documents are immediately removed from AI responses.

AI Chatbot

LiveDesk uses advanced AI powered by Google Gemini 2.5 Flash to provide instant, accurate responses to customer questions. The AI is the first line of support, handling FAQs and common queries automatically.

RAG Technology

Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) is the technology that makes LiveDesk's AI responses accurate and contextual. Here's how it works:

AI Playground

The AI Playground lets you test your AI before deploying it to customers:

• Send test messages and see real AI responses
• Verify that your knowledge base covers common questions
• Test system prompts and AI behavior
• Identify gaps in your documentation

Access the Playground from AI Playground in the sidebar (Admin access required).

AI Settings

Configure your AI behavior in Settings → AI Settings:

Response Caching

LiveDesk caches AI responses for frequently asked questions to improve performance and reduce costs:

• Cache duration: 7 days
• Similar questions hit the same cache entry
• Cache is automatically invalidated when knowledge base changes
• Reduces AI API costs for repeated queries

Dynamic Subject Generation

LiveDesk automatically generates clear, contextual subject lines for conversations using AI. This helps organize your support queue and makes it easier to identify and prioritize inquiries at a glance.

AI Writing Assistant

Help your agents write better, faster responses with built-in AI writing tools. The Writing Assistant is available in both the response box and internal notes sections.

AI Quality & Trust

Research shows 73% of support leaders say customer resistance to AI is a major obstacle. LiveDesk addresses this with a suite of AI quality features that ensure customers are never "trapped" by AI and always have a path to human assistance.

Smart Loop Detection

AI chatbots can sometimes get stuck repeating similar responses, frustrating customers who can't get past the loop. LiveDesk automatically detects these patterns and triggers an escape flow.

Escape Hatch (Always-Visible Human Button)

Customers should never feel trapped when they can't reach a human agent. The "Talk to Human" button is always visible in the widget header.

AI Confidence Scoring

Customers don't always trust AI responses. Confidence scoring calculates how reliable an answer is and displays this to users, with auto-escalation for low confidence.

Emotional Intelligence Detection

Basic keyword matching misses nuanced frustration, sarcasm, and urgency. LiveDesk uses multi-layer emotional analysis to detect customer sentiment and adapt responses.

Handoff Summaries & Internal Notes

Customers hate repeating themselves when escalated to a human agent. When handoff occurs, the system generates a comprehensive summary and automatically creates an internal note.

{
  "issueSummary": "Customer unable to reset password",
  "keyPoints": [
    "Tried password reset 3 times",
    "Email not received",
    "Account may be locked"
  ],
  "attemptedSolutions": [
    "Suggested checking spam folder",
    "Provided direct reset link"
  ],
  "customerSentiment": "frustrated (85% confidence)",
  "urgency": "high",
  "suggestedNextSteps": [
    "Verify account email address",
    "Check for account lockout"
  ]
}

Intelligent Ticket Routing

Automatically assign conversations to the right agent based on availability, skills, workload, and custom rules. No more manual queue management.

Ticket Threading

Automatically link related tickets, detect duplicates, and merge conversations for complete customer context.

Smart Canned Responses

Create template responses with dynamic variables that auto-fill customer and conversation data for personalized, consistent replies.

Hi {{customer.name || "there"}},

Thank you for contacting us about ticket #{{conversation.ticketNumber}}.

{{#if conversation.priority == "high"}}
I understand this is urgent and I'm prioritizing your request.
{{/if}}

Best regards,
{{agent.name}}

AI Agent Assist

AI-powered tools to help agents respond faster and more effectively.

@Mentions

Collaborate with teammates by mentioning them in conversations. They'll receive instant notifications and can jump right in.

Internal Notes

Leave private notes on conversations visible only to your team. Perfect for handoffs, context sharing, and collaboration.

Notifications

Stay informed about mentions, assignments, and important updates with our notification system.

Conversations

The Conversations section is where you manage all customer interactions. View chat history, respond to queries, and track support tickets.

Conversation Statuses

Each conversation has a status that reflects its current state:

Human Handoff

When the AI cannot fully resolve a query, it can hand off to human agents. Handoff can be triggered by:

• Sentiment Analysis: Detects frustrated or upset customers
• Customer Request: Customer explicitly asks for a human
• AI Uncertainty: AI is not confident in its response
• Manual Trigger: Agent manually takes over the conversation

Tags & Organization

Use tags to categorize and organize conversations:

• Create custom tags (e.g., "Billing", "Technical", "Feature Request")
• Apply multiple tags per conversation
• Filter conversations by tag
• Track tag analytics to identify common issues

Canned Responses

Save time with pre-written response templates:

1. Create templates for common responses
2. Use keyboard shortcut or picker to insert
3. Personalize templates with variables (customer name, etc.)
4. Share templates across your team

Chat Widget

The LiveDesk chat widget is the customer-facing component that you embed on your website. It provides a seamless chat experience with AI and human agents.

Widget Installation

To install the chat widget on your website:

1. Go to Widget in your dashboard
2. Copy the embed code snippet
3. Paste it before the closing </body> tag of your website
4. The widget will appear automatically

<script src="https://www.livedesk.help/widget.js" data-org-id="YOUR_ORG_ID"></script>

Replace YOUR_ORG_ID with your actual organization ID from the dashboard.

Widget Customization

Customize the widget appearance in Widget → Appearance:

CORS Configuration

For security, you should configure which domains can use your widget:

1. Go to Widget → Security
2. Add your domain(s) to the allowed origins list
3. Include both www and non-www versions if needed
4. For development, add localhost:3000

Team Management

Manage your support team, invite new members, and configure roles and permissions.

Inviting Team Members

To invite a new team member:

1. Navigate to Team in the dashboard
2. Click "Invite Member"
3. Enter their email address
4. Select their role (Admin or Agent)
5. Click "Send Invitation"

The invitee will receive an email with a link to accept the invitation and create their account.

Roles & Permissions

Agent Status

Agents can set their availability status to manage workload:

Customer CRM

The Customer CRM provides a centralized view of all your customers, their contact information, conversation history across all channels, and internal notes for your team.

Customer Profiles

Each customer profile contains:

To edit a customer, click on their row in the customer list, then click the "Edit" button to modify their information.

Notes & Conversation History

The customer detail page shows:

• Internal Notes: Add private notes visible only to your team
• Conversation History: All conversations across every channel
• Channel Icons: Quickly identify where each conversation came from
• Status Badges: See if conversations are open, pending, or resolved

Custom Fields

Organizations can define custom fields to track additional customer data specific to their business needs:

Voice Calls

LiveDesk supports AI-powered voice calls for real-time customer support (Enterprise plan feature).

Voice Setup & Configuration

Voice calls use WebRTC for real-time audio streaming:

• Automatic voice-to-text transcription
• AI responds using text-to-speech
• Full conversation history with transcripts
• Handoff to human agents with audio context

Voice Recordings

All voice calls are recorded for quality assurance:

• Recordings stored securely with encryption
• Playback available in conversation history
• Automatic transcription included
• Configurable retention period

Analytics

Track your support performance with comprehensive analytics and reporting.

Conversation Metrics

Agent Performance

Track individual agent metrics:

• Conversations handled per agent
• Average response time per agent
• Resolution rate per agent
• Customer satisfaction per agent
• Online time and availability

AI Performance Metrics

Comprehensive AI performance tracking for continuous improvement:

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Collect feedback at key moments to understand customer satisfaction:

Survey Fatigue Prevention

Smart controls prevent survey overload:

• Minimum hours between surveys per customer
• Maximum surveys per week limit
• Skip surveys for quick resolutions
• Configurable delays before showing

Quality Assurance System

Maintain high support quality with systematic agent reviews:

Auto-Queue Triggers

Automatically queue conversations for review when:

• Customer gives low CSAT rating
• Conversation was escalated from AI
• Agent is new (higher sample rate for first 30 days)
• Conversation exceeds message count threshold

Email Ticketing

LiveDesk can process incoming emails as support tickets, creating conversations that agents can respond to directly.

Email Setup

To enable email ticketing:

1. Configure your email forwarding to our webhook endpoint
2. Set up your support email address (e.g., support@yourdomain.com)
3. Configure auto-responses and routing rules
4. Test with a sample email

Email Threading

LiveDesk automatically threads email replies together:

• Reply emails are matched to existing conversations
• Full email history displayed in conversation view
• Rich text email responses supported
• Attachments preserved in threads

Omnichannel Support

LiveDesk's Omnichannel feature brings all your customer conversations from multiple platforms into a single unified inbox. No more switching between apps—manage everything from one dashboard.

Telegram Setup

Connect your Telegram bot to receive and respond to customer messages:

Facebook Messenger Setup

Connect your Facebook Page to receive and respond to customer messages via Messenger:

Instagram Setup

Connect your Instagram Professional account to receive and respond to Direct Messages:

Channel Configuration

Each connected channel can be configured independently:

• Enable/Disable: Toggle channels on or off without disconnecting
• Test Connection: Verify the channel is working properly
• Disconnect: Remove the channel configuration entirely

Handoff & Routing

AI-to-human handoff works seamlessly across all channels:

Customer Portal

The Customer Portal empowers your customers to log in and manage their support interactions across all channels. Customers can view past conversations, reply to ongoing tickets, and start new support requests—all from a branded self-service portal.

Setup & Configuration

The Customer Portal is available at portal.livedesk.help.

Customer Authentication

Customers can authenticate using multiple methods:

Custom Domain (Enterprise)

Enterprise customers can use their own custom domain for the customer portal, providing a fully branded experience (e.g., support.yourcompany.com).

Billing & Plans

LiveDesk offers flexible pricing plans to fit your needs.

Plan Limits

Each plan has specific limits:

Managing Your Subscription

Manage your subscription in Billing (Owner access required):

• View current plan and usage
• Upgrade or downgrade plans
• Update payment method
• View billing history and invoices
• Cancel subscription

Settings

Configure your organization settings to customize LiveDesk for your needs.

General Settings

• Timezone: Set your organization's timezone for accurate timestamps
• Business Hours: Define when agents are available
• SLA Settings: Configure response time targets

Organization Settings

• Organization Name: Your company name displayed in communications
• Logo: Upload your company logo
• Support Email: Reply-to address for email notifications

Notification Settings

Configure when and how you receive notifications:

• Email notifications for new conversations
• Email notifications for handoff requests
• Browser push notifications
• Weekly summary reports

Security Settings

• API Keys: Generate and manage API keys for integrations
• Session Management: View and revoke active sessions
• Two-Factor Authentication: Enable 2FA for added security
• SSO Configuration: Set up single sign-on (Enterprise)

API Reference

LiveDesk provides APIs for integration with your existing systems.

Widget API

The widget can be controlled programmatically:

// Initialize widget
livedesk('init', { orgId: 'YOUR_ORG_ID' });

// Open the widget
livedesk('open');

// Close the widget
livedesk('close');

// Set customer data
livedesk('identify', {
  email: 'customer@example.com',
  name: 'John Doe',
  customData: { plan: 'pro' }
});

// Listen to events
livedesk('on', 'message', (data) => {
  console.log('New message:', data);
});

Webhooks

Receive real-time notifications via webhooks:

• conversation.created - New conversation started
• conversation.updated - Status or assignment changed
• message.created - New message in conversation
• handoff.requested - Human handoff triggered

Security & Privacy

LiveDesk takes security seriously. Here's how we protect your data.

Data Security

• Encryption in Transit: All data encrypted with TLS 1.3
• Encryption at Rest: Database encrypted with AES-256
• Access Controls: Role-based permissions
• Audit Logs: All actions logged for accountability
• Regular Backups: Automated daily backups

Compliance

LiveDesk is designed to help you maintain compliance:

• GDPR: Data processing agreements, right to erasure
• CCPA: California Consumer Privacy Act compliance
• SOC 2: Type II certification (Enterprise)

Data Retention

• Conversation data retained for 2 years by default
• Configurable retention periods (Enterprise)
• Data export available on request
• Complete deletion within 30 days of account closure

FAQ

General Questions

Technical Questions

Billing Questions