Teach the AI

What the AI already knows

When you install Catchly it reads your products, collections, pages, policies and store details. The Knowledge page shows all of it in tabs by source: Products, Collections, Pages and policies, Your answers, Facts and Q&A, and Files and imports. All items lists everything together with its type and where it came from.

Each tab shows how many items the AI has learned, for example 120 of 124 learned, and has a switch that turns the whole source on or off. When a source is off, the AI does not use anything in it until you turn it back on.

The Products tab shows each product with its picture, collections, tags and status, how many times shoppers asked about it in the last 90 days, and when it last synced. Search by title, filter Active or Inactive products, and select several products to hide them from the AI or show them again in one step.

When your store data has no answer, the AI says it is not sure and offers a person or asks for the shopper's email. It does not search the web.

Add your own knowledge

On the Facts and Q&A tab you can add facts that are not on your store pages yet.

• Add question: write a question shoppers ask and your answer. The AI uses it as a source, puts it in its own words and cites it. You can add an optional topic, such as Shipping, and set the status to Active or Inactive. Only active entries are used by the AI.
• Add note: a title and a short note, such as how your sizing runs or where you ship from.

New entries are used from the next shopper message. Each plan includes a number of custom entries, and the Knowledge page shows how many you have used.

Suggested questions to answer

At the top of Facts and Q&A, Catchly suggests questions worth answering. Questions real shoppers asked that the AI could not answer come first, marked Asked by shoppers with how often they were asked. Click Suggest questions to add likely questions for your store, based only on your product types, policy titles and page titles. You can do this once a day.

Suggestions are questions only. In the Add question window, pick one under Add from suggestion. Catchly fills in the question and drafts an answer using only information already in your store. Where your store does not have the fact, the draft shows a gap such as [add: delivery time to Canada] for you to fill in. Read and correct every draft before you save it. Dismiss a suggestion you do not need and it will not come back. A suggestion counts toward your plan only once you save it.

Upload files

On the Files and imports tab, upload a PDF, Word (.docx), text, Markdown or CSV file of up to 5 MB, such as a care guide or a size chart. Catchly reads the text, splits it into parts named after the file, and does not keep the file itself. Each part counts as one entry on your plan. Uploading a file with the same name again replaces its parts.

Scanned PDFs that have no selectable text, password protected files and files with macros cannot be read. Save an unprotected copy with selectable text, or paste the text as a note.

Import questions and answers from a spreadsheet

To add many questions at once, save a spreadsheet as CSV with the columns question and answer, and optionally tags. The first row names the columns. After you choose the file, Catchly shows the first 10 rows and how many are new, already there or have a problem. Questions you already have are skipped. Click Import to add them. If the new questions do not fit in your plan, nothing is imported and the page says how many entries you have room for.

Import pages from your store

• Import one page: paste the address of a page on your own store, such as an FAQ page. Catchly keeps the text, not the images.
• Import your whole site: click Import my site. Catchly reads your store's sitemap and imports your pages and blog posts, up to 50 per run, and shows its progress on the page. Products and collections are skipped because they already sync from Shopify. Run it again to pick up changes: changed pages are updated and pages that left your site are removed.

Catchly only reads pages on your own store domains. A storefront password stops the import, so remove it first if your store is not open yet.

Everything you upload or import shows on the Files and imports tab and in All items with its source, and each item has its own switch to hide it from the AI.

Exact replies

Sometimes you want the chat to say something word for word, such as your returns window or whether you ship to a country. Exact replies do that.

1. On the Knowledge page, open the Your answers tab and add an exact reply.
2. In When a shopper asks, write the question.
3. In The AI answers, word for word, write your reply.

When a shopper asks that question, the chat sends your reply as you wrote it. Use the switch on a reply to pause it, or delete it to go back to answers from your store.

Fix this answer

If the AI gave an answer you do not like, you can correct it from the chat itself.

1. Open the chat in the Inbox, or use the test chat on the Home page.
2. Under the reply, click Fix this answer.
3. Write the answer exactly as you want shoppers to read it, and save.

Your correction becomes an exact reply, so you only fix it once. You can see and change it later on the Knowledge page.

In any Inbox chat, each AI reply shows the store pages it was based on. Click Improve this answer to open Facts and Q&A with the shopper's question filled in.

Questions the AI could not answer

Open AI assistant, Knowledge, then the Gaps tab. It lists the questions the AI could not answer in the last 30 days, with similar wordings grouped and how often each was asked. Click Add an answer next to one, and the Add question window opens with the question filled in. The Dashboard lists them too.

The Gaps tab also lists products shoppers asked about that are missing a detail in Shopify, such as size and fit, materials, care or photos. Click Edit in Shopify to add it; the product syncs on its own.

Hide something from the AI

To stop the AI using a product, page, policy or entry, find it on the Knowledge page and turn off AI uses this. It shows as Hidden, and the AI stops using it from the next message. Turn the switch back on at any time. The Hidden filter under All items shows everything you have hidden. To pause a whole source, such as every collection, use the switch at the top of its tab.

To keep a whole subject out of the chat, add it under Settings, Handing over to your team, Topics the AI must not discuss. The AI declines those topics and offers your team instead.

Refunds, discounts and delivery dates

A built in promise guard is designed to stop the AI offering refunds, discounts or delivery dates that your store policies do not state. Those chats are handed to your team. If you want the AI to answer these questions, put the facts in your store policies or in an exact reply.

Choose what the AI can do

In Catchly, open AI assistant and then the Skills tab. Each skill is one row with a short description, a status and a switch. The status tells you what a skill still needs, for example a size guide page, an alert email or order access from Shopify. Click Manage to change a skill's settings, such as the words that bring in a person, when the chat asks for an email, how it talks about low stock, your starter questions or your forms. Turning a skill off changes what the chat does from the next shopper message.

Talk to a person is always on, because every chat tells shoppers they can ask for one.

Tone and your own instructions

The Instructions tab sets how the AI sounds. Pick a tone and read the sample reply under it. In Your instructions you can add up to 1,000 characters about how to talk to shoppers, for example to keep answers short or to mention gift wrapping when people shop for presents.

Instructions change how the AI sounds and what it puts first. They never add facts. The AI still answers only from your store data, so if you write a fact such as a price or a delivery time, Catchly suggests adding it in Knowledge instead, where the AI can check it. Instructions that ask the AI to ignore your store data, make things up or always say yes are not saved.

Turn the AI off

On the Home page, click Turn AI off now. It takes effect on the next shopper message. The chat stays on your store so your team can keep replying. Click Turn AI on when you are ready.