AI assistant: the bot answers customers in its own words

Ordinary blocks send pre-written text. The AI assistant reads the customer's message and composes the reply itself — like a consultant you've briefed on who they are and what they know about your business. The block can either answer once and move on, or keep a conversation going until it reaches a goal you set. The customer sees a normal chat message. If the AI can't cope or the customer asks for a human, the block can hand the conversation to a live operator.

What the Assistant Does

"Replies to One Message" — the AI answers once, then the flow moves on ("one reply" on the canvas). "Holds a Conversation Until the Goal Is Met" — the AI answers every customer message until it reaches the goal you set ("conversation" on the canvas).

When the Goal Is Met

"Conversation" mode only: briefly describe when the conversation counts as finished — for example "the customer gave a name, phone and time". Up to 1,000 characters; without a goal such a block cannot be published.

Role & instructions

Describe who the AI should be in the conversation — for example "a polite coffee-shop barista who recommends drinks and knows the menu by heart". Up to 4,000 characters. The customer never sees these instructions.

Knowledge base

Facts about your business the AI relies on: prices, addresses, opening hours, delivery terms. The more detail, the less it improvises. Up to 20,000 characters.

Provider and model

Which "brain" answers customers: Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Alibaba Qwen, xAI, Mistral, Moonshot Kimi or OpenRouter. The list shows the providers you connected a key for in settings, and their models: "Curated Models" and "From Your Provider Account". Some providers run servers in China — the panel warns you about it under the selector.

May call an operator

Let the AI bring in a real person when the customer asks for a manager or the AI can't cope — the flow then takes the "operator" output. On by default.

Remember from the dialog

A list of details the AI will "pull" from the conversation and save to contact variables for later steps — the customer's budget or preferred date, say. Up to 10 items; the variable name is written in Latin letters.

AI Reply Limit per Person

Optional: a number and a period (per minute, per hour or per day). On the free plan Forgebot already caps it at 20 replies a day per person (the field can only lower it); on a paid plan there is no cap by default, but we recommend setting one — otherwise a single person could spend as much as they want on your key.

New Conversation After Silence (min)

Shown in "conversation" mode and when memory is on: 1 to 1,440 minutes, 30 by default. If the person stays silent that long, the AI forgets the previous conversation, and in "conversation" mode the conversation ends via "silent/limit". With memory on, "Also on /start" does the same on /start. The reply limit is not reset by this.

Remember the Chat Between Flow Runs

In Advanced. Turn it on so the AI remembers the conversation with this person even if the flow restarts — 2 to 50 recent messages. The more messages, the more each reply costs on your key.

Max AI Replies per Conversation

In Advanced, "conversation" mode only: up to 25 replies (20 by default), after which the conversation ends via "silent/limit".

AI Reply

In Advanced: "Send to the Customer" — the reply goes to the chat and is also saved to {{ai_reply}}; "Save to a Variable Only" — the customer does not see it, it goes to {{ai_reply}} for later blocks (a summary for a manager, a translation). In "conversation" mode — "Send to the Customer" only.

If the AI Can't Reply, Message the Customer

In Advanced: the text the customer gets when the AI could not reply (the key failed, credit ran out, a limit was hit). Up to 1,000 characters, plain text; empty — nothing is sent.

Max reply length (characters)

In Advanced: the maximum characters in a single AI reply — 50 to 3,500, 800 by default. Keeps answers short and to the point.

A customer writes "what's mild and sugar-free?". From the knowledge base the AI suggests an oat-milk flat white and asks what time to have it ready. When the customer asks for an invoice or a manager, it hands the chat to an operator.