Getting Started
Help Assistant & Public Help Centre Chat
Two AI help surfaces - the in-app Help Assistant for operators (sessions per user/venue, thumbs feedback) and the public Help Centre chat on the marketing /help page (anonymous, RAG over help articles). Both free, both private-safe.
Last updated 19 May 2026
Two AI help surfaces share a similar pattern but serve different audiences. Help Assistant is the in-app chat for logged-in operators with venue context. Public Help Centre Chat is the anonymous version on the marketing /help page. Both are free.
Help Assistant: in-app - sidebar Help launcher (web) or More → Help (mobile). Public Help Centre Chat:
https://openchairpro.com/help.
TL;DR
- Help Assistant: in-app, authenticated, venue-aware, sessions persist per user/venue. Thumbs up/down feedback.
- Public Help Centre Chat: on
/help, anonymous, RAG over published help articles. Source links + follow-up chips. - Both free, both run on
gpt-6-lunawith prompt-leak detection. - All plans for both.
Help Assistant (operators)
The in-app AI help chat for logged-in operators. Knows your venue context - your services, your team size, what plan you're on, what features are enabled.
Where to find it
- Web: Help launcher in the sidebar Workspace Hub, or the floating support button on most pages
- Mobile: support chat sheet in the More tab → Help
What it knows
- Your venue's name, country, industry
- Your tier (FREE / Trial / PRO)
- Features you have enabled (Calendar Sync, OpenChair Assistant, Storefront tracking, etc.)
- The help article catalogue
- Common settings paths
It does not know your customer data, booking history, or financial data - that's for the Coach (your business advisor) or Intelligence Chat (your data Q&A). Help Assistant is about how to use OpenChair, not about your data.
Sessions
Sessions persist per (user, venue) - up to 20 sessions retained. Open the help launcher tomorrow and your last conversation is still there. Switch venues and you get a fresh session set for the new venue.
Feedback
Each AI response has thumbs up / thumbs down buttons. Feedback flows to our team via Langfuse and informs prompt iteration. Useful when:
- The answer was wrong → thumbs down
- The answer was unclear → thumbs down + add a note
- The answer was perfect → thumbs up (calibrates our quality signal)
We use these signals to improve help quality, not for individual support tickets - for live support, contact us via email or chat with a human.
Examples of what to ask
- "How do I set up a deposit rule for first-time clients?"
- "Where do I configure my brand voice persona?"
- "What's the difference between Smart Waitlist and Gap Fill?"
- "Why isn't my dedicated SMS number provisioning?"
- "How does FREE plan caps work?"
Security and safety
- Prompt-injection guards via canary token + Slack alert on leak detection
- Your venue data isn't sent off-platform
- The system prompt explicitly forbids the AI from revealing internal infrastructure details
Public Help Centre Chat (unauthenticated)
A second chat surface lives on /help (marketing site, not the app). Available to anyone - prospects evaluating OpenChair, customers of operators looking for help with bookings, or operators who aren't signed in.
Where to find it
https://openchairpro.com/help - the marketing help centre. The chat is a chat-bubble component embedded in the page.
What it knows
- The published help-article catalogue (every doc under
docs/help/) - Generic OpenChair feature knowledge
It does not know any venue or user context - it's anonymous, no signed-in identity.
How answers are sourced
The chat uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) over the help article corpus. Every answer:
- Is grounded in specific help articles
- Includes source links to the relevant docs
- May suggest follow-up chips for related questions
Rate limits
To prevent abuse, the public chat is IP-rate-limited - typical users won't hit the limit, but scripted abuse triggers a temporary slow-down.
Examples of what to ask
- "Can I take bookings on my own website?"
- "How does pricing work?"
- "What's the difference between FREE and PRO?"
- "Do you support Tap to Pay in New Zealand?"
If you're an existing operator and want venue-specific help, use the in-app Help Assistant instead (it knows your context).
Privacy and data handling
| Surface | Auth | Stores |
|---|---|---|
| Help Assistant | Logged-in user | Per (user, venue) session history - up to 20 sessions, retained until you clear them |
| Public Help Centre Chat | Anonymous | No persistent session; IP for rate-limiting only |
Both surfaces use the same Slack-alert prompt-leak detection so any internal prompt content leaking back through the model is flagged immediately.
Tier
Both surfaces are all plans / free. Help isn't a paid feature - we want every operator and every prospect to get answers quickly.
When to use which
| Use | Surface |
|---|---|
| "How do I configure X in my venue?" | Help Assistant (in-app, knows your setup) |
| "What does OpenChair do?" | Public Help Centre Chat |
| "Why isn't my specific feature working?" | Help Assistant (then escalate to support if AI can't resolve) |
| Browsing while evaluating OpenChair | Public Help Centre Chat |
| Customer of an operator looking for help with their booking | Probably contact the venue directly - the public chat doesn't know about specific bookings |
What neither surface replaces
- Live human support - for billing disputes, account recovery, or anything urgent, contact human support via email (
support@openchairpro.com) or in-app support panel. - Coach - for business advice grounded in your venue data (Coach).
- Intelligence Chat - for analytics questions about your real data (Intelligence Chat).
- OpenChair Assistant - for AI-proposed actions on your venue (OpenChair Assistant).
Help surfaces are about using OpenChair. The other AI surfaces are about running your business with OpenChair.
Common mistakes
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| Help Assistant said something wrong | Thumbs down with a note. We use these signals to improve. For urgent issues, contact human support. |
| Public Help Centre Chat doesn't have the context I need | Use the in-app Help Assistant when signed in - it knows your venue. The public chat is anonymous on purpose. |
| Want to find a specific help article | Use the Help Centre search at /help or browse by category. The chat is for natural-language questions; search is for known topics. |
| Help Assistant keeps suggesting features I'm not on | Confirm the AI knows your plan - if it keeps suggesting PRO features when you're on FREE, that's a sync issue; report it via thumbs down. |
| Want to disable help notifications | The help surfaces don't send notifications - they're chat surfaces only. |
Related Articles
Common questions
- What's the difference between Help Assistant and the public Help Centre chat?
- Help Assistant is the in-app chat available to logged-in operators - it knows your venue context and can answer questions about your specific setup. The public Help Centre chat is on the marketing /help page; it's anonymous, no venue context, just RAG-grounded answers over our help articles. Operators usually want Help Assistant; prospects and unauth'd visitors use the public chat.
- How do I open Help Assistant?
- Web: the help launcher button in the sidebar Workspace Hub, or the floating support button on most pages. Mobile: the support chat sheet in the More tab. Sessions persist per user per venue - open it tomorrow and your last conversation is still there.
- Do I get charged Sparks for help chats?
- No. Help Assistant and the public Help Centre chat are both free. Sparks apply to operator-facing AI features (Assistant actions, campaign drafts, brand voice, etc.), not to help support.
- Is the AI's answer reliable?
- The AI is grounded in our help articles and your venue context. It includes source links so you can verify. Both surfaces let you give thumbs up / thumbs down feedback that flows to our team to improve the answers.