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This guide provides complete instructions for implementing and configuring the Kibo Shopper Agent on your commerce storefront. It covers live chat widget setup, Admin UI configuration, and storefront integration. The Kibo Shopper Agent automates common customer service tasks such as order status lookups, return processing, and product inquiries. The system handles these requests programmatically without requiring human agent involvement. For requests that require human assistance, conversations can be escalated to live agents with full context preserved.

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Architecture
  3. Prerequisites
  4. Live Chat Widget Setup
  5. Shopper Agent Admin UI
  6. Storefront Widget Integration
  7. Testing Your Implementation
  8. API Reference
  9. Troubleshooting

Quick Start

Implementation involves three main areas of configuration: Workflow Summary:

Overview

Kibo Shopper Agent is an AI-powered conversational platform that provides intelligent customer service and shopping assistance. The platform enables:
  • Customer Service Agents: Handle order inquiries, returns, cancellations, and complaints
  • Shopper Assistants: Guide customers through product discovery and purchases
  • Live Agent Handoff: Seamlessly escalate to human agents via Kibo Helpdesk
  • Multi-Tenant Support: Configure different agents per tenant and site

Key Components


Architecture

Message Flow

  1. Customer sends message via Kibo Helpdesk widget
  2. Kibo Helpdesk forwards message to webhook endpoint
  3. Chat Middleware routes to the AI engine
  4. AI engine determines intent and calls appropriate tools
  5. Tool Runtime executes commerce operations (orders, products, etc.)
  6. Response flows back through the chain to customer

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

Accounts and Access

  • Kibo Commerce tenant with API access
  • Access to Shopper Agent Admin UI (provided by Kibo)
  • Kibo Helpdesk account (provided by Kibo)

Information You’ll Need

What Kibo Provides

The following are managed by Kibo and pre-configured for your tenant:
  • Cloud infrastructure
  • AI agents and configuration
  • Backend services (Chat Middleware, Tool Runtime)
  • Agent definitions and base playbooks

Live Chat Widget Setup

Kibo Helpdesk serves as the messaging platform that connects customers with your AI agents. Your Kibo Helpdesk instance will be provisioned and configured by Kibo.

Step 1: Access Your Kibo Helpdesk Instance

Your Kibo representative will provide you with access credentials and the URL for your Helpdesk instance.

Step 2: Create an Inbox

  1. Log into Kibo Helpdesk
  2. Go to Settings > Inboxes
  3. Click Add Inbox
  4. Select Website as the channel type
  5. Configure:
    • Website Name: Your storefront name
    • Website Domain: Your storefront domain
    • Widget Color: Match your brand
  6. Click Create Inbox

Step 3: Get Your Site Token

After creating the inbox:
  1. Go to Settings > Inboxes
  2. Click on your inbox
  3. Navigate to Configuration tab
  4. Copy the Website Token (this is your HELPDESK_SITE_TOKEN)

Step 4: Configure Webhook Integration

This connects Kibo Helpdesk to the Kibo Agentic backend.
  1. Go to Settings > Integrations > Webhooks
  2. Click Add Webhook
  3. Configure:
    • Webhook URL: https://your-agentic-backend.com/webhook/chat/helpdesk
    • Events to Subscribe:
      • message_created
      • conversation_updated
      • conversation_status_changed
  4. Click Add Webhook

Step 5: Configure Agent Bot

  1. Go to Settings > Integrations > Agent Bots
  2. Create a new agent bot:
    • Name: Kibo AI Assistant
    • Outgoing URL: https://your-agentic-backend.com/webhook/chat/helpdesk
  3. Assign the bot to your inbox

Step 6: Enable Custom Attributes

Custom attributes allow session tracking between Kibo Helpdesk and Kibo Commerce.
  1. Go to Settings > Custom Attributes
  2. Create a new attribute:
    • Name: kibo-session-id
    • Display Name: Kibo Session ID
    • Type: Text
    • Applies To: Conversation

Kibo Helpdesk Configuration Summary


Shopper Agent Admin UI

The Admin UI is used to configure agents, playbooks, tools, and safety settings.

Accessing the Admin UI

Navigate to your Shopper Agent Admin deployment:

Step 1: Authentication

  1. Log in with your credentials
  2. Your user context will determine which GCP project and agents you can access

Step 2: Agent Selection

  1. From the Dashboard, click Agents
  2. Your configured agents will be listed
  3. Select the agent you want to configure

Step 3: Playbook Configuration

Playbooks define the conversational behavior of your agent.

Creating a Playbook

  1. Navigate to Playbooks in the agent menu
  2. Click Create Playbook
  3. Configure:
    • Display Name: Descriptive name (e.g., “Order Status Handler”)
    • Goal: What the playbook accomplishes
    • Instructions: Step-by-step conversation flow

Playbook Instruction Syntax

Key Playbook Features

Step 4: Tool Configuration

Tools connect your agent to backend functionality.

Available Tool Types

Creating an OpenAPI Tool

  1. Navigate to Tools in the agent menu
  2. Click Create Tool
  3. Select OpenAPI as the type
  4. Configure:
    • Display Name: Tool name (e.g., “Get Order Status”)
    • OpenAPI Spec: Paste your OpenAPI/Swagger specification
    • Authentication: Configure as needed

Tool Authentication Options

Step 5: Safety Settings

Configure content safety to protect users and your brand.
  1. Navigate to Settings in the agent menu
  2. Configure Safety Filters:
  1. Configure Banned Phrases:
    • Add phrases that should never appear in responses
    • Choose partial or exact match
  2. Enable Prompt Security (recommended):
    • Protects against prompt injection attacks

Step 6: Set Start Playbook

  1. From the Playbooks list, find your main entry playbook
  2. Click the menu and select Set as Start Playbook
  3. This playbook will be the first to handle conversations

Storefront Widget Integration

The widget embeds Kibo Helpdesk into your storefront for customer interactions.

Step 1: Environment Configuration

Add to your storefront’s .env.local file:

Step 2: Next.js Configuration

Ensure next.config.js exposes the variables:

Step 3: Create the Helpdesk Widget Component

Create components/core/HelpdeskWidget/HelpdeskWidget.tsx:

Step 4: Create the Session API Endpoint

Create pages/api/create-chat-session.ts:

Step 5: Add Widget to Layout

In your DefaultLayout.tsx:

Testing Your Implementation

Test 1: Admin UI Agent Testing

  1. Log into Shopper Agent Admin
  2. Select your agent
  3. Navigate to Agent Testing
  4. Select your site from the dropdown
  5. Send test messages:
    • “What’s my order status?”
    • “I want to return an item”
    • “Help me find a product”
  6. Verify:
    • Responses are contextually appropriate
    • Tools are being called correctly
    • No safety filter blocks on normal queries

Test 2: Kibo Helpdesk Integration

  1. Open Kibo Helpdesk dashboard
  2. Go to your inbox
  3. Trigger a test conversation via the widget
  4. Verify in Kibo Helpdesk:
    • Message appears in inbox
    • Bot responds appropriately
    • Custom attribute kibo-session-id is set

Test 3: Storefront Widget

  1. Navigate to your storefront
  2. Log in as a customer
  3. Click the chat widget
  4. Start a conversation
  5. Verify:
    • Widget loads correctly
    • Messages send and receive
    • Agent responds with relevant information
    • Order lookups work with real data

Test 4: End-to-End Verification

Complete this checklist to verify your full implementation:
  1. Session Creation
    • Open browser Developer Tools (Network tab)
    • Start a new conversation in the widget
    • Verify /api/create-chat-session returns a session ID
  2. Kibo Helpdesk Custom Attributes
    • In Kibo Helpdesk dashboard, open a test conversation
    • Check that kibo-session-id attribute is populated
  3. Tool Functionality
    • Ask the agent about an existing order
    • Verify it returns real order data from your Kibo tenant
  4. Safety Filters
    • Test that normal queries are not blocked
    • Verify banned phrases (if configured) are filtered

Test Scenarios to Try


API Reference

This section documents APIs relevant to your storefront integration. The backend Tool Runtime APIs and Admin APIs are used internally and do not require direct integration.

Storefront Session API

Your storefront needs to call the Kibo Chat Session API to create sessions. This is typically done through a proxy endpoint in your Next.js API routes. Create Session (called by your /api/create-chat-session endpoint)

Kibo Helpdesk Webhook URL

Configure this URL in Kibo Helpdesk settings (you don’t call it directly):
This endpoint is provided by Kibo. You configure it as the webhook URL in your Kibo Helpdesk inbox settings.

Available Agent Tools

The following tools are available to agents and can be enabled/disabled in the Admin UI: Tools are configured and enabled through the Admin UI. The agent automatically uses available tools based on conversation context.

Environment Variables Reference

Storefront Environment Variables

These are the environment variables you need to configure in your headless storefront:

Support

For additional assistance, contact your Kibo representative.