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What Can Users Do With It?

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Analytics & Insights

  • Ask questions like “What are my top customer topics this month?” or “Show me conversation trends for the last 3 months”
  • View interactive charts (bar, line, area, pie) generated in real time
  • Check credit usage breakdowns
  • Identify knowledge gaps — questions the AI agent couldn’t answer

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Training & Knowledge Base

  • Add, update, or delete knowledge base sources (text, Q&A pairs, URLs)
  • Upload files (PDFs, Word docs, spreadsheets, archives) to extract training data from
  • Add, edit, or delete sources; each change trains on its own
  • Toggle auto-resync on or off

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AI Agent Configuration

  • Update the AI agent’s system instructions or channel-specific instructions
  • Change the AI model or temperature
  • Modify the chat bubble appearance (colors, header, button styles, themes)

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Helpdesk (Read-Only)

  • Query tickets by status, assignee, channel, or date
  • Search tickets using text or semantic search
  • View AI agent performance metrics, resolution analytics, and workload distribution
  • Review helpdesk settings and saved views

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Actions & Integrations

  • Create, update, enable/disable, or delete actions (Slack notifications, webhooks, ticket creation, etc.)
  • Build custom actions from start to finish, including testing them against your real API
  • Check integration status and trigger OAuth connections for new integrations

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Deployment

  • Check which channels are active (chat bubble, WhatsApp, Slack, etc.)
  • Enable or disable channels

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Built-in Skills (Multi-Step Workflows)

Users don’t need to invoke these explicitly — the AI uses them automatically when relevant:
  • Weekly insights report
  • Tone/instruction updates with safe diff preview
  • Drafting Q&A from knowledge gaps
  • New AI agent onboarding walkthrough
  • File/archive processing into training data
  • Helpdesk triage, issue review, performance review, and settings audit

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How Does Approval Work?

Backstage never makes changes silently. Any mutative action (updating instructions, adding sources, deleting an action, etc.) triggers a confirmation UI where the user can review each change and approve or reject it individually before anything is applied. Text changes show a side-by-side diff; settings changes show a before/after table.

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Scheduled Audits

Backstage can audit your AI agent on a schedule and send you a report, so you hear about problems without having to open Backstage and ask. Reports can run daily, on weekdays, or weekly.

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Set up an audit

Ask Backstage in your own words. For example:
Send me a daily audit at 9am. Lead with refund requests, and flag anyone asking about shipping to Canada.
Backstage asks for anything it still needs, such as where to send the report, which day to use for a weekly report, or your city (on Slack or iMessage) so it can send the report at the right local time. It then shows you the schedule for approval and sets it up. Anything you ask it to focus on becomes a standing instruction for every report. You can change the audit later in conversation, for example:
  • “Also watch for complaints about late deliveries.”
  • “Make it weekly.”
  • “Pause it.”

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Where reports arrive

  • Slack or iMessage, if you’ve connected one (see Connect Slack and Connect iMessage)
  • Otherwise, a Backstage session in the dashboard, along with an email letting you know a new report is ready
Replying to a report continues the conversation, so you can say things like “fix that” or “tell me more about #2”.

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What’s in a report

Problems only you can fix, with what to do about each one.
What’s going wrong, with the numbers or conversations behind it.
Real improvements since the last report.
What got fixed, what’s still open, and what’s new.
At most two suggestions, smallest fix first: a Q&A, a source fix, an instructions change, then an action. If you say yes, Backstage builds the fix for you (and asks for your approval before applying it).
Every audit goes through the same checklist:
  • Conversation quality: thumbs-down ratings, escalations, failed actions, and customers asking for a human
  • Knowledge: gaps and conflicting sources
  • Instructions: your AI agent’s general and channel-specific instructions
  • Deployment and training status
  • Procedures and actions
  • Helpdesk queue
Backstage reviews every conversation in the reporting window, not a sample. If nothing needs attention, the report is a one-line all-clear.
For a one-time audit, just ask “audit my agent”. Backstage runs the same checklist over the last 7 days.

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Good to know

  • Scheduled audits are available on paid plans, with up to 3 scheduled reports per AI agent per user.
  • Scheduled runs are read-only. Nothing changes until you reply and approve a fix.
  • Reports don’t count against your daily Backstage message limit.
  • HIPAA accounts don’t receive email notifications. Reports still appear in Backstage.

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Building Custom Actions

Backstage can build a custom action entirely in conversation: the endpoint, headers, query parameters, body, and the details your AI agent asks customers for. It then tests the endpoint against your real API and turns the action on.

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Build an action

Describe what your AI agent should be able to do, and include links to API docs if there are any. For example:
I want my agent to tell people the current weather in their city. Here are the docs: https://open-meteo.com/en/docs
Backstage reads the docs, drafts the action, and asks for one approval that covers the whole build: the configuration, the test call, and turning the action on. If your request leaves a real choice open, such as which endpoint to use or whether the action should change data, Backstage asks you one question first.
Backstage works out how the API expects its inputs. In the weather example, it notices that the API takes coordinates rather than city names, so it builds the action with latitude and longitude as inputs.

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API keys stay out of the chat

When an endpoint needs an API key, Backstage shows a masked input. The value goes straight from your browser to the action, and Backstage never sees it. When Backstage reads the action back later, any saved key appears as [set]. The form also shows which action the key is for and the host it will be sent to, so you can check both before pasting a live key.

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Testing against your real endpoint

Nothing is sent to your API until you click Run. Before that, the test card shows the exact request that will be sent, and warns you when the method can change data (POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE). Backstage only receives the shape of the response (field names, types, and short samples), never the full body. Those fields become the data your AI agent can see when it calls the action. You can narrow them later from the action’s Data Access settings in the dashboard.

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Spotting missing actions

When Backstage reviews your conversations, it can notice that customers keep asking for something only an action could answer, and offer to build that action. Many gaps are better solved with a Q&A or a source fix, and in those cases Backstage suggests that instead of an action.

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Good to know

  • If the request uses a {{variable}} that your AI agent is never told to collect, Backstage points it out.
  • On Slack, the Run button works right in the thread. Entering an API key opens Backstage on the web.

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Plan Access & Daily Message Limits

Backstage is accessible to all plans — there is no plan-level gate blocking access. The only throttle is the daily message limit, which varies by plan: There is also a rate limit of 10 requests per 60 seconds per user to prevent abuse. Scheduled audit reports don’t count toward the daily message limit.

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Backstage on Slack & iMessage

You can now talk to your AI agent’s Backstage directly from Slack or iMessage, no need to open the dashboard. Ask questions, review analytics, manage your AI agent, and approve changes from the apps you already use.

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What you can do from a DM or a text

Analyze your AI agent

Ask questions like “How did my AI agent do this week?” or “What did users ask about most?” Charts and reports are delivered directly in the conversation.

Update your AI agent

Change models, instructions, chat interface, branding, and other settings using natural language. Every change requires your approval before it’s applied.

Manage sources & actions

Inspect, update, and retrain knowledge sources, and manage actions without opening the dashboard.

Approve safely

Review exactly what’s changing before approving. Nothing is applied without your explicit confirmation.

Analyze files (Slack)

Upload a CSV or other supported file and ask questions about its contents directly from Slack.

Continue anywhere

Start on Slack or iMessage and continue the same Backstage session on the web with full history, richer approvals, and interactive charts.

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Approving changes

Every change proposed by Backstage requires your explicit approval.
Review the proposed changes and approve or reject them directly from Slack.Each proposal includes:
  • A detailed diff of what will change
  • Approve and Reject controls for every change
You can also reply with messages like “yes”, “approve”, “no”, or “reject”, or equivalent phrases in any language.
If you send another request while an approval is pending, the previous proposal is automatically superseded. You won’t accidentally approve an outdated change.

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Connect Slack

  1. Open your Dashboard.
  2. Select your AI agent.
  3. Open Backstage.
  4. Click Controllers in the top-right corner.
  5. Expand Slack.
  6. Click Add to Slack. You only need to do this once per workspace.
  7. Copy the generated link message.
  8. Send it as a DM to the Backstage Slack app.
  9. Once you receive Connected ✓, you’re ready to chat.
Each Slack thread is its own Backstage session.If your Slack account has access to multiple AI agents, starting a new thread will ask which AI agent you’d like to use.

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Connect iMessage

  1. Open Controllers from the Backstage page.
  2. Expand iMessage.
  3. Text the generated link message to the displayed phone number, or scan the QR code to open Messages with the number and message pre-filled.
  4. Once you receive Connected ✓, you can start chatting.
Your phone maintains one active conversation.To switch AI agents, send another AI agent’s generated link message. This starts a new Backstage session for that AI agent.

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Good to know

Connections are personal. They inherit your Chatbase permissions and can be revoked at any time from the Controllers dialog.
Slack supports uploading files for analysis.iMessage does not support attachments, if you send one, it’ll tell you your caption.
Large analyses, interactive charts, and long approval flows include a link back to the corresponding Backstage session in the dashboard.
Nothing is ever changed without your explicit approval.

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Limitations

  • Message length: 10,000 characters max per message
  • File uploads: Max 50 MB per file, up to 5 files per message
  • Analytics range: Queries can cover a maximum of 6 months
  • Knowledge base source size: Max 1 MB per text source or Q&A entry
  • Helpdesk is read-only: Backstage can surface helpdesk analytics and tickets, but it cannot modify ticket status, assign tickets, or send messages to customers
  • File tools are agent-focused: Backstage will only process uploaded files for agent-related tasks (improving knowledge base, instructions, analytics). It won’t do general-purpose tasks like summarizing a random document or solving homework