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A channel is one connection between Kai and a place your customers write. Kai speaks Intercom and WhatsApp Cloud today. One Brain answers on all of them. Open Settings → Channels. Each connected channel is one row. The row says which channel it is, which mode it runs, and whether it is live.
Settings, Channels

Settings, Channels: every connection and the mode it runs.

If nothing is connected yet, the page says so and offers Add channel. Only an owner or an admin can add one.
Settings, Channels, with nothing connected

A workspace with no channel connected yet.

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Connect Intercom

Kai works inside the inbox your team already uses. Kai writes drafts as internal notes and hands a conversation over by assigning it.
1

Get an access token

In Intercom, open Developer Hub → your app → Configure → Authentication. Copy the access token. The token is scoped to one workspace, so Kai learns the workspace from the token.
2

Get the client secret (recommended)

In the same app, open Basic Info and copy the client secret. It is optional in Intercom’s own token flow, so Kai treats it as optional too. Read Which secret to use before you skip it.
3

Paste both into Kai

In Settings → Channels, select Add channel, then Intercom. Paste the access token, and the client secret if you have one. Select Connect. Kai checks the token with Intercom before it stores anything.
4

Add the webhook endpoint in Intercom

Kai shows a URL after it connects. In Intercom, open Developer Hub → your app → Webhooks and add that URL.
5

Subscribe to four topics

Subscribe to conversation.user.created, conversation.user.replied, conversation.admin.replied and conversation.admin.closed. Kai needs the admin replies to know that a human took over.
Kai stores the token encrypted on your own server. To rotate a token, or to add a client secret later, run the connect flow again with the new values.

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Which secret to use

Kai has two ways to prove that a delivery is genuine. The signature is the stronger of the two, because it authenticates the message and not only the caller. A URL reaches a log file more easily than a header does.
If your webhook URL holds a secret, treat the URL like a password. Add the client secret and connect again to move to signature checks.

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Connect WhatsApp Cloud

A WhatsApp Business number talks to Kai directly. There is no provider inbox, so your team answers from Kai’s inbox.
1

Collect three values from Meta

Open Meta App Dashboard → WhatsApp → API Setup. Copy the Access token, the Phone number ID and the WhatsApp Business Account ID. Use a permanent system-user token, not the 24-hour test token.
2

Copy the app secret (recommended)

Open the app’s Basic Settings and copy the app secret. With it, Kai verifies the signature on each delivery. Without it, the secret webhook URL authenticates the caller instead.
3

Paste them into Kai

In Settings → Channels, select Add channel, then WhatsApp Cloud. Paste the values and select Connect. Kai checks them against Meta before it stores anything.
4

Read what Kai did for you

Kai registers the number for Cloud API and subscribes the webhook fields to its own callback URL. The result page lists each step and says which ones are done.
5

Finish anything Kai could not do

If Kai could not subscribe the webhook, it shows the Callback URL and the Verify token. In Meta, open App Dashboard → WhatsApp → Configuration → Webhook, paste both, then subscribe the messages field.
The callback URL contains the verify token. Treat that URL like a password.
A WhatsApp channel card holds a Delivery setup panel. It shows each step that must hold for a message to arrive: number ownership, registration, the messages subscription, the callback URL, and the app subscription. If messages stop arriving while the credentials are still valid, read that panel first.

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Sources inside one channel

One Intercom workspace carries several surfaces on one credential and one webhook. Intercom calls each of them a source. Kai knows Messenger, WhatsApp, Email, SMS, Instagram, Facebook and Phone. Those surfaces are not one audience. A Messenger visitor is often anonymous. A WhatsApp thread is a phone number that already chose to write to you. Most teams trust the two differently. So each source can carry its own mode. Open the channel card and find Per-source modes. Each source offers Inherit, Copilot, Autopilot and Off. Inherit is the resting state, and it follows the mode set on the channel above.
A channel card, expanded

A channel card open: mode, autopilot scope, wait, confidence and per-source modes.

A green dot beside a source means Kai has seen traffic on it. A source that Intercom adds later still works: it inherits the channel mode until you set one.
Move one source to autopilot first, not the whole channel. See Copilot, autopilot and off.

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Test connection

An Intercom card has a Test connection button. It asks Intercom whether the stored credential still works, and names the workspace when it does. Use it when a channel goes quiet, before you change any policy. A WhatsApp card has no single button, because a WhatsApp connection is four steps that break on their own. The Delivery setup panel checks each one.

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Recent activity

Every channel card holds a Recent activity list. It records what arrived and what Kai refused: deliveries, rejections, subscriptions, archives, and the account notices Meta pushes about a WhatsApp Business Account. Read it when a channel looks connected but nothing happens. An account notice, such as a quality drop or a template decision, stops delivery while the credentials stay perfectly valid.

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Disable a channel

Select Disable channel in the card footer. Kai stops acting on that connection. Nothing changes in Intercom or in Meta. Two more actions appear only on a disabled channel:
  • Archive conversations files the remaining threads as history. They stay readable and searchable in Kai, and they accept no new reply. Nothing is sent to the provider.
  • Delete channel removes the connection and every conversation, message and template that Kai holds from it. The provider itself is untouched.
Deleting a channel cannot be undone.

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Message templates

WhatsApp closes a conversation 24 hours after the customer’s last message. After that, a free-form message fails. To write first, or to write late, you must send a template that Meta approved. Meta owns the template library. Kai mirrors it. Open Settings → Templates.
Settings, Templates

Settings, Templates: the mirrored library and how each variable is filled.

1

Sync from Meta

Select Sync from Meta. Kai pulls every template this number has, both approved and not, and reports how many it stored and removed.
2

Read each status

A template is approved, pending, rejected, disabled or paused. Only an approved template can be sent.
3

Bind each variable

For every {{variable}} in the title and in the message, choose where its value comes from: typed by the agent, or a name taken from the record. Kai saves each choice on its own. A template with a title marks each variable with the part that holds it, because WhatsApp lets the title and the message spell one variable the same.
Name bindings are read-only in the composer. A customer name comes from the contact details, and a sender name comes from the teammate’s profile. If the source is missing, Kai blocks the send instead of writing a wrong name.
Kai fills the variables of the text title and of the message. A template that needs a value Kai cannot supply is not offered to agents, and the row says so: an image, video or document title needs a file, and a button link with a variable in it is not text.
Only people send outbound messages. A template never changes what Kai does on its own.

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Direct Send

A WhatsApp channel card holds a Direct Send setting. With it, agents write free-form service messages after the 24-hour window instead of picking a template. Meta grants this per account. Turn it on only after your account is in that beta, because elsewhere those sends fail rather than fall back to a template.

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Next

Copilot, autopilot and off

What each mode does, and what still holds a reply back.

People and permissions

Who may connect a channel and change its policy.