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 Enable AI Features on the General tab of AI & Knowledge → AI Features. Upgrade your plan

Getting started

Open the Auto support tab

Go to Dashboard → Bots → your bot → Servers → the server → AI & Knowledge → Knowledge Base and open the Auto support tab.

Turn it on and pick channels

Switch on Enable Auto Support and choose one or more channels under Public Support 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 Enable Knowledge Base 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.

What happens

  1. A member without a staff role posts a question in a chosen channel. Messages shorter than the Minimum Message Length on the Answering tab are skipped unless they include an image. Staff messages and users on the AI User Blacklist are ignored.
  2. The bot opens a public thread on that message named AI · <the question> and posts Hi @member, I'm an AI assistant. While a team member can review this thread, I'll look through available resources and answer here.
  3. It answers in the thread with the same source line, match score, and AI notice as a ticket answer.
  4. 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 note Automated reply from the AI assistant. When it can name the missing topic, the reply names it instead.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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 Create 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 Run AI in escalated tickets if you want it to keep helping. Escalated Ticket Categories sets which categories to try first for these tickets; without an override, your normal ticket category order is used.

Settings

SettingValuesDefaultEffect
Enable Auto SupportOn, OffOffOpens a thread when someone asks a question in a chosen channel
Public Support ChannelsAny text channelsNoneThe only channels Auto Support acts in
Escalated Ticket CategoriesTicket categories, in priority orderNoneWhere tickets opened from a thread are created
Inactive Thread Archive (minutes)5 to 10,0801,440Threads with no activity are archived and locked after this many minutes
Discord Auto-Archive1 hour, 1 day, 3 days, 7 days1 dayDiscord's own inactivity timer for the thread
Sticky messageOn, Off, up to 1,500 charactersOffReposts a guidance message at the bottom of each chosen channel, at most once every 10 seconds per channel
Customer VotingOn, OffOffLets non-staff users vote 👍 or 👎 on answers in threads
Create TicketOn, OffOnAdds the Open ticket button
Mark ResolvedOn, OffOnAdds the Mark resolved button, which the thread creator or staff can press to close the thread
One Open Thread Per UserOn, OffOffWhile 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
Run AI in escalated ticketsOn, OffOffLets AI keep answering in tickets opened from a thread
Learn from resolved threadsOn, OffOffLearns question-and-answer entries from threads when they close
Learning modeOn, OffOffThe bot never answers in threads; staff answer and the bot learns from them

Learning mode and handoff-only threads

With Learning mode 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 General-Knowledge Fallback off.

Learning from threads

Learning from threads is off until you switch on Learn from resolved threads or Learning mode, and it also needs Enable 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 the Auto-Approve Confidence Threshold, 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 Analytics → AI Usage.

  • 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

SymptomCauseFix
No thread opensEnable Auto Support or Enable AI Features is off, the channel is not in Public Support Channels, or the poster has a staff roleCheck both switches and the channel list, and test from an account without staff roles
No thread opens in one channel onlyThe bot lacks Create Public Threads in that channelGrant the permission on the channel
Short questions are ignoredThe message is below the Minimum Message LengthLower it on the Answering tab
The thread only says a team member will replyLearning mode is on, or the Knowledge Base is off or has nothing to answer fromTurn off Learning mode, or enable the Knowledge Base and add a source
The bot stopped answering in a threadA staff member replied thereExpected: the thread now belongs to staff
A member's new question disappearedOne Open Thread Per User is on and they already have an active threadThey 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 Public Support Channels.

Can members still open a ticket? Yes. With Create 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 Learning mode. 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.

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