AI Agents Overview

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What an agent is

In Halo, an agent is a persistent, configurable AI persona. Each agent has its own:

• Identity, name, avatar, type (customer_facing, internal, sales, help_center).
• Instructions, system prompt that defines tone, scope, and behavior.
• Skills, opt-in capabilities like web search and UI highlighting (knowledge search is always on for customer-facing agents). Voice and Live Help are configured as widget modes on the Chat Widget channel, not as skills.
• Channels, where the agent runs: web widget, email mailbox, Slack workspace, help center.
• Actions, third-party tools the agent can call: HubSpot, Linear, Stripe, Slack, plus built-ins like ticket escalation and Stripe billing.
• Escalation rules, when and how to hand off to a human.
• Style, colors, trigger icon, greeting, suggested messages.

You can have multiple agents and Halo picks the right one based on the channel a message arrives on. Most teams start with one support agent and optionally add a sales agent (the setup wizard prompts for either or both, you only need one to continue). Find your agents at AI Agents in the sidebar (/dashboard/agents).

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Agent types

The default support agent for an org (used in fallbacks like help-center chat with no explicit agent assigned) is the oldest active customer-facing agent.

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The agent editor

Open an agent (/dashboard/agents/[id]) and you’ll see: Top tabs — switch between sections: Header, Save button. An agent’s status is derived automatically from its channels: if at least one channel is enabled the agent is Active; with no enabled channels it’s Inactive. There’s no manual on/off toggle. Inactive agents don’t respond on their channels. The widget falls back to the next active agent on that channel, or returns nothing if there’s no fallback.

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The default support agent

Whenever Halo needs to pick “the” agent — for example, the chat widget on your help center, or fallback action resolution — it uses the oldest active customer-facing agent in your org. This usually matches what teams expect (the original support agent everyone knows about). If you create new customer-facing agents and want one of them to take over, deactivate the old one or assign channels explicitly to the agent you want.

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Multi-agent setups

Common patterns once you have more than one agent:

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Visibility & routing

Customer-facing agents can be scoped to specific users, companies, or pages:

• Require authentication — only show to identified users.
• User segment filters — only show when the user’s traits match (e.g. plan = pro).
• Company segment filters — only show when the company’s traits match.
• Page URL filters — only show on URLs matching include/exclude rules (is, is_not, contains, starts_with, ends_with).

You can also build chat routing rules that, mid-conversation, hand off to a different agent or directly to your team based on conditions.

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Where to go next