HelpAlive glossary: tenants, users, assists, sources, keys

This is the HelpAlive glossary: it defines the words HelpAlive uses in the dashboard, the widget and these docs. Read it once before you set up Controls or install the script.

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People: tenants, users and your team

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Tenant

A tenant is one of your customers: a company, team or workspace that uses your app. You send its id as tenantId in identify(), and its name as tenantName. Users with no tenant, as in a B2C app, are left without tenantId and appear together in your dashboard as B2C customers. Tenants appear on Controls (“Each tenant”), on Audience, and on Settings → Privacy Management. You can set the agent’s mode and limits per tenant.

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User

A user is a person who uses your app. You tell HelpAlive who they are with identify(), using your own id for them as userId. The agent appears only for users you identify. See Identify users.

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Your team

Your team is your own staff who sign in to the HelpAlive dashboard. Everyone on your team is an admin and can change every setting. You invite teammates on Settings → Team & access.

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Verified user

A verified user refers to a user whose identity your server has signed with your signing secret. With Only allow verified users on, HelpAlive refuses chat, assist and usage requests that don’t carry a valid signed token. See Verify users.

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What the agent does: assists and chat messages

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Assist

An assist is the agent doing a task in your app for a user, or showing them how, one step at a time. It starts when a user accepts an offer in the chat. Inside the widget, your users see an assist as a “walkthrough”. See Assists. An assist counts once HelpAlive completes its first step. An assist that was only offered, or stopped before then, doesn’t count. See How we count.

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Chat message

A chat message counts when the agent answers one of your users’ messages.

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What the agent knows: sources and drafts

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Source

A source is something the agent answers from. You add sources on Train:

• Add your help or docs site reads every page your help center or docs site links to.
• Upload a file takes a PDF, MD, TXT or DOCX file up to 10 MB.

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Draft and published

New sources, and changes to tone, length, custom responses and Appearance, start as drafts. A draft refers to a change your users don’t see yet: your users see only what you have published. The Test page uses your drafts, which means that you can try changes before you press Publish. Changes on Controls apply at once, with no draft. See Publishing.

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Billing: plans and packs

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Plan

Your plan includes a number of assists and chat messages each month. See Plans and pricing.

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Pack

A pack is extra assists or chat messages you buy on top of your plan, with Add assists or Add chat messages. Packs are charged to the card on file and added right away. They are used after your plan’s amount, carry over month to month, and end with your subscription. See Billing and usage.

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Keys: project key and signing secret

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Project key

The project key identifies your workspace in the script tag (data-api-key). It is public, which means that anyone can see it in your pages. Find it on Settings → Setup & API Key.

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Signing secret

The signing secret is the private key your server uses to sign user tokens for verified users. It stays on your server, for example in HELPALIVE_SIGNING_SECRET, and never goes into your pages. Find and rotate it on Settings → Setup & API Key. See Security.

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