> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.asknow.no/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Key concepts

> The handful of ideas that make the rest of Ask make sense.

Ask runs AI agents that answer your customers, and hands a conversation to your team when a person is needed. These are the ideas the rest of the docs build on.

## Workspace and roles

Your company's account in Ask is a **workspace**. Everything in it, agents, conversations and settings, belongs to that workspace alone.

Everyone in the workspace has one of two roles:

| Role | Can do |
| - | - |
| **Admin** | Everything, including agents and members. |
| **Support** | Works cases in the Inbox. |

Admins invite people under **Users**.

## Agents

An **agent** is what answers your customers. You can have several, for example one for your web shop and one for wholesale customers. Each agent has its own settings:

* **Persona**: its instructions, first message, display name and language.
* **Documents**: the sources it answers from, such as your website, an FAQ or a Google Sheet. Sources live in the workspace library and are attached to the agents that should use them.
* **Tools**: what it can look up or do in other systems, such as order status in Shopify or a call to your own API.
* **Procedures**: step-by-step ways to handle a task, like a return or an order question.
* **Memories**: short facts it answers from until they expire, like a delay at the carrier this week.
* **Escalation rules**: when it hands a conversation to your team.

The **Playbook** describes, in plain language, how the agent handles each customer topic, written from these settings.

## Draft and published

An agent always has two versions that matter:

* The **draft** is what you edit. It saves as you go, and the **Test** panel talks to it.
* The **published** version is what customers talk to. Nothing you change reaches customers until you choose **Publish**.

Each publish becomes a numbered version you can find under **Versions**, test again, copy back into the draft or make live again. Conversations already open keep the version they started with.

<Note>
  **Memories** are the exception: they reach the agent on the next message, with nothing to publish, so you can tell it about a delay today without republishing.
</Note>

## Channels

A **channel** is where customers reach an agent:

| Channel | What it does |
| - | - |
| **Website widget** | Chat with customers directly on your website. See [Add the chat widget](/channels/widget). |
| **Email** | Answer mail sent to your mailboxes. |
| **Phone** | Let customers call and speak with the agent. |

Channels always use the agent's published version.

## Conversations, cases and handoffs

Every exchange with a customer is a **conversation**. **Conversations** lists everything your agents have handled, with filters such as whether it was automated or needed a person, and the customer's rating.

The **Inbox** is where your team works. Each piece of customer work there is a **case**, shown on a board by state:

| State | Meaning |
| - | - |
| **Agent handling** | The agent is answering. |
| **Needs human** | A person needs to answer. |
| **In progress** | Someone on your team has it. |
| **Waiting** | Someone replied and set the case to wait, for example until the customer answers. |
| **Resolved** | Done. |

The agent **hands over** when a customer asks for a person, when it judges it can't help, or when one of its escalation rules matches, such as a high-value order. You can **Take over** a case the agent is handling at any time, **Assign** it to someone, and **Resolve** it when it's done.

## Testing

Before customers see a change, try it in the **Test** panel, which talks to your draft. **Tests** are saved conversations that check the agent still answers correctly after a change, so you can run them before every publish.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
    Put these ideas to work and get your first agent live.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Add the chat widget" icon="message" href="/channels/widget">
    Put your agent on your website.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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