Auto Support
Let the bot answer questions in public support channels you choose by opening a thread, hand over to staff, and learn from the threads your team answers
Auto Support answers questions that members post in public channels you pick, without anyone opening a ticket. The bot opens a thread on the question, answers there from your Knowledge Base, and steps aside as soon as a staff member joins. This page is for the admin turning it on.
Auto Support needs a Pro or Enterprise plan on the bot owner's account and the Atlas switch on under AI assistant → Atlas. Upgrade your plan
Getting started
Open the Auto support tab
Go to AI assistant → Knowledge base and open the Auto support tab. Its card switch also works while Use the knowledge base is off, for threads that hand over to staff without AI answers.
Turn it on and pick channels
Switch on Auto support and choose one or more channels under Channels. The bot only acts in the channels you choose. Channels whose names look like ticket channels are hidden from the list unless you tick Show ticket channels (not recommended).
Give it something to answer from
Auto Support uses the same sources, answer settings, and AI notice as Knowledge Base answers in tickets. Switch on Use the knowledge base at the top of the Knowledge base card and add at least one source that shows Ready (see Knowledge Base). Without anything to answer from, threads still open but only hand over to staff.
Check the bot's permissions
In each chosen channel the bot needs Create Public Threads and Send Messages in Threads.
Save the changes
Click Save changes in the bar at the bottom, or press Ctrl/⌘ + S. Changing a switch or channel only changes your draft until you save.
What happens
- A member without a staff role posts a question in a chosen channel. Messages shorter than Shortest message Atlas answers under Answering → How Atlas replies → Advanced are skipped unless they include an image. Staff messages and members listed under Members without Atlas are ignored.
- The bot opens a public thread on that message named
AI · <the question>and postsHi @member, I'm an AI assistant. While a team member can review this thread, I'll look through available resources and answer here. - It answers in the thread with the same source line, match score, and AI notice as a ticket answer.
- When nothing relevant is found, it replies
I couldn't find anything in the knowledge base that answers this confidently. A team member can help from here.with the noteAutomated reply from the AI assistant.When it can name the missing topic, the reply names it instead. - The member can keep asking in the thread and the bot answers follow-ups from that member only. Messages from other members do not get AI answers.
- As soon as a staff member replies in the thread, the bot stops answering there for good, so the member only gets human replies from then on.
- The thread closes when someone presses Mark resolved, when a ticket is opened from it, or after the inactivity time you set.
Opening a ticket from a thread
With Open a ticket on, the thread shows an Open ticket button. The thread creator or a staff member can press it. A regular ticket opens with an Auto Support Escalation card showing the source thread, the original question, and the AI answer, and the thread posts Ticket opened: #ticket-channel. Staff will reply there. before it closes.
AI stays silent in that ticket by default because it already tried in the thread. Switch on Keep Atlas on in tickets from threads if you want it to keep helping. Where tickets from threads open sets which categories to try first for these tickets; without an override, your normal ticket category order is used.
Settings
Channels, Buttons under each answer, and Keep a guide message at the bottom are shown in the main card. Expand Advanced (the hint says "Ticket categories, thread timers and learning") for the category order, timers, one-thread limit, escalated-ticket AI, and learning switches below.
| Setting | Values | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto support | On, Off | Off | Opens a thread when someone asks a question in a chosen channel |
| Channels | Any text channels | None | The only channels Auto Support acts in |
| Where tickets from threads open | Ticket categories, in priority order | None | Where tickets opened from a thread are created |
| Close quiet threads after | 5 to 10,080 | 1,440 | Threads with no activity are archived and locked after this many minutes |
| Discord hides the thread after | 1 hour, 1 day, 3 days, 7 days | 1 day | Discord's own inactivity timer for the thread |
| Keep a guide message at the bottom | On, Off, up to 1,500 characters | Off | Reposts a guidance message at the bottom of each chosen channel, at most once every 10 seconds per channel |
| Let members vote | On, Off | Off | Lets non-staff users vote 👍 or 👎 on answers in threads |
| Open a ticket | On, Off | On | Adds the Open ticket button |
| Mark as solved | On, Off | On | Adds the Mark resolved button, which the thread creator or staff can press to close the thread |
| One thread per member | On, Off | Off | While a member has an active thread in a channel, a new question from them there is deleted and they are pinged in their existing thread |
| Keep Atlas on in tickets from threads | On, Off | Off | Lets AI keep answering in tickets opened from a thread |
| Learn from solved threads | On, Off | Off | Learns question-and-answer entries from threads when they close |
| Let staff answer first | On, Off | Off | The bot never answers in threads; staff answer and the bot learns from them |
Learning mode and handoff-only threads
With Let staff answer first on, the bot never answers in a thread. It posts one message, Hi @member, thanks for your question: a team member will review this thread and reply here., with the Open ticket and Mark resolved buttons, and stays silent for the rest of the thread. Use it to build up your Knowledge Base from real staff answers before letting the bot reply.
Threads work the same way, without an AI answer, when the Knowledge Base is switched off or has nothing to answer from: no Ready source, no approved Q&A entries, and Answer general tech questions off.
Learning from threads
Expand Advanced (the hint says "Ticket categories, thread timers and learning") on the Auto support tab. Learning from threads is off until you switch on Learn from solved threads or Let staff answer first, and it also needs Use the knowledge base on.
- It runs when a thread is marked resolved or archived for inactivity. A thread turned into a ticket is learned from through the ticket instead, when the ticket closes.
- Threads where no staff member replied are skipped, because there is no human answer to learn.
- Only the thread creator's and staff members' messages are used. Bot replies and other members are ignored.
- The resulting entries follow the same rules as learning from tickets: confident ones go live at How sure Atlas must be on the Learning tab, the rest wait in Staff Q&A for review. See Learning from closed tickets.
Limits and gotchas
Auto Support answers use tokens from the bot owner's monthly AI allowance, like every other AI feature. See AI usage under More tools in the dashboard home's sidebar or in the account menu.
- Auto Support never acts in channels you did not choose, even though the bot can read them.
- Only the member who asked gets AI answers in a thread.
- Once staff reply in a thread, the bot does not come back to it.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No thread opens | Auto support or Atlas is off, the channel is not in Channels, or the poster has a staff role | Check both switches and the channel list, and test from an account without staff roles |
| No thread opens in one channel only | The bot lacks Create Public Threads in that channel | Grant the permission on the channel |
| Short questions are ignored | The message is below the Shortest message Atlas answers | Lower it under Answering → How Atlas replies → Advanced |
| The thread only says a team member will reply | Let staff answer first is on, or the Knowledge Base is off or has nothing to answer from | Turn off Let staff answer first, or switch on Use the knowledge base and add a source |
| The bot stopped answering in a thread | A staff member replied there | Expected: the thread now belongs to staff |
| A member's new question disappeared | One thread per member is on and they already have an active thread | They were pinged in their existing thread; resolve it first or turn the setting off |
Common questions
Does Auto Support read every channel on my server? No. It only acts in the channels listed under Channels.
Can members still open a ticket? Yes. With Open a ticket on, the thread has an Open ticket button, and the new ticket starts with a summary of the thread.
What happens when a moderator replies in the thread? The bot stops answering in that thread for good, so the member only gets human replies.
Can I have staff answer everything while the bot learns? Yes. Turn on Let staff answer first. The bot hands every thread to staff and learns from the answers when the thread closes.
Will the bot learn wrong answers from members? It only learns from threads where staff replied, and only from the thread creator's and staff messages. Low-confidence entries wait in Staff Q&A for review.
Which plan do I need? Pro or Enterprise.
Join our Discord server for support
Was this page helpful?
Last updated on
Feedback & Learning
How votes, escalation, and learning from closed tickets work, every setting on the Learning tab and the Hand over to staff card, and how to review what the bot learned
Connect Claude Code or Codex
Connect Claude Code, Codex, or another MCP-capable AI tool to manage your TicketCord tickets, knowledge base, and bot messages, with the permissions, the full tool list, and troubleshooting