Overview
Bolt Assistants Settings is where you can create and manage your Bolt Assistants for Students. From here, you can customize their settings according to your institution’s specific needs and operational preferences. With Bolt Assistants for Students, you can fine-tune the performance of your AI chatbot to enhance the student experience.
Whether you’re setting it up for the first time or updating existing configurations, this guide offers a comprehensive overview of each setting and how to create and manage your Bolt Assistants for Students.
Find Bolt Assistants settings by navigating to Engagement > Bolt Assistants.
General
General settings are applied globally. When adding or editing an assistant, you can customize each Assistant’s channels and schedule.
Select Channels: Specify which conversation channels Bolt Assistants will respond to inbound messages: Live Chat, Email, SMS. This setting serves as the central control to enable/disable Bolt Assistants. When all chips are disabled (gray), all Assistants are disabled.
The Assistant will optimize its response based on the channel (e.g., SMS responses will be around 160 characters, and e-mail responses will contain greetings).
Limit The Time Active: Set a schedule for Assistants to respond to conversations. This setting is helpful if you'd like the Assistants to run during off-hours when your team is unavailable.
To run Assistants on a set schedule, Conversations must be set to active during the same time as Assistants.
Student Assistants
This is where you can view and manage your Assistants, as well as add new ones. Bolt Assistants are personalized AI-powered Assistants who provide tailored responses to inbound queries.
Student Assistant Types
There are nine different Assistant types:
Academic Advisor
Career Advisor
Financial Aid Advisor
Common App Advisor
Admissions Advisor (with subtypes)
Undergraduate
Graduate
Continuing Education
International
Domestic
Campus Life Advisor
Peer Advisor
Alumni Advisor
Athletics Advisor
Default Assistant
Your default assistant is designed to be all-knowing, which means its access to knowledge base sources cannot be limited. However, you can restrict its access to certain skills. To maximize results and minimize unnecessary human handoffs, ensure the default assistant has the same skills as your other assistants.
When multiple assistants are available on a team, the default assistant isn’t listed. Instead, students will see an “I’m not sure” option if they’re unsure which assistant to choose. Selecting this option activates the default assistant.
Please note that the default assistant cannot hand off to other assistants—only to humans. Read more about this here.
Explore the dropdown sections below to learn how to manage your Assistants.
Adding a Student Assistant
Adding a Student Assistant
Navigate to Engagement > Bolt Assistants.
Locate the Assistants section.
Click + Add Student Assistant.
Configure the settings for the Assistant:
Name: Enter a name for your Assistant in the header.
Enabled: Use this toggle to activate the Assistant now or later.
Assistant Title: Optional - Personalize the assistant's title. This title will be displayed in Messenger and in your conversation inbox. If no title is added, we will display the Assistant Type.
Assistant Type: Choose the type of Assistant. Refer to the previous section for details on each type.
Select Assistant Skills: Enable the skills you want active for this Assistant. Our AI Assistants not only provide answers but also help students accomplish tasks. For a complete list of skills and their descriptions, visit our AI Assistants Skills article.
Avatar: Customize the Assistant with an avatar or picture. You can upload an image or use our built-in Bolt AI-powered avatar generator. For best results, ensure the image has a 1:1 aspect ratio (square)—like 100px by 100px. If no image is uploaded, your institution's primary logo will be used.
Greeting: Set an initial greeting for the Assistant. This is the first message students will see when they start a new chat with the Assistant.
Description: Provide a brief description of the Assistant. This will be visible to users when they start a conversation with the Assistant.
Internal Description (Optional): This setting is essential for enhancing the handoff process between Assistants. Provide keywords or phrases that summarize the capabilities and skills of the Assistant. These descriptions are readable by other Assistants but are not visible to users.
Configure the Assistant's permissions.
Permissions vary based on the skills you enable. By default, permissions are set to “all.” To fine-tune, toggle off “all” and additional settings will appear. For instance, turning off “all knowledge” will generate a knowledge settings section, allowing you to specify which knowledge sources the Assistant can access. We’ll detail these settings below based on each skill.
Knowledge
Individual Sources: Limit Assistant to only these individual sources uploaded by you.
Categories: Limit Assistant to only reference specified categories from the knowledge base.
URL Patterns: Limit access to only knowledge matching the URL patterns you add.
Title Patterns: Limit access to only knowledge matching the title patterns you add.
Events
Individual Events: Limit Assistant to only select events.
Categories: Limit Assistant to only reference specified event categories.
Applications
Individual Applications: Limit Assistant to only reference specified applications.
Appointments
Individual Availabilities: Limit Assistant to only reference specified individual appointment availabilities.
Categories: Limit Assistant to only reference specified appointment categories.
Previewing a Student Assistant
Previewing a Student Assistant
The built-in preview feature lets you see an Assistant in action before enabling it. This allows you to fine-tune your settings without leaving the editor.
Preview During Creation
When creating or editing an Assistant, click the Preview
button in the top right corner of the side sheet.
Preview Existing
Navigate to Engagement > Bolt Assistants.
Locate the Assistants section.
Locate the Assistant you wish to preview.
Click the three vertical dots
icon at the end of the row.Select Preview.
Editing + Deleting Student Assistants
Editing + Deleting Student Assistants
Navigate to Engagement > Bolt Assistants.
Locate the Assistants section.
Locate the Assistant you wish to edit or delete.
Click the three vertical dots
icon at the end of the row.Select Edit or Delete based on your desired action. If deleting, you will be asked to confirm your action.
Teams
Teams are groups of Assistants used to control where and when the Assistants are active by applying condition filters such as Page URL, Path URL, UTM Parameters, and Conversation Channel. For instance, you could have an Athletics team with an athletics advisor and an admissions advisor, restricting that team to only pages containing “athletics” in the URL. This setup ensures the right audience meets the right team for assistance.
Team conditions are checked sequentially based on their order:
Each team can have conditions that must be met to activate it.
The first team whose conditions are met becomes active.
You should have only one team without conditions, which acts as the default team.
The default team without conditions should be the last on the list because any subsequent teams will be ignored
Explore the dropdown sections below to learn how to manage your Assistant teams.
Adding a Team
Adding a Team
Navigate to Engagement > Bolt Assistants.
Locate the Teams section.
Click + Add Student Assistants Team.
Configure the settings for the Assistant:
Name: Enter a name for the team in the header.
Enabled: Use this toggle to activate the team now or later.
Student Assistants: Select the Assistant(s) you wish to add to the team.
Conditions: Add conditions to control which pages this team should be active on. You can add Page URL, Path URL, UTM Parameter, and/or Channel conditions.
Click Save in the top right corner.
Editing + Deleting Teams
Editing + Deleting Teams
Navigate to Engagement > Bolt Assistants.
Locate the Teams section.
Locate the Team you wish to edit or delete.
Click the three vertical dots
icon at the end of the row.Select Edit or Delete based on your desired action. If deleting, you will be asked to confirm your action.
Reordering Teams
Reordering Teams
Team conditions are evaluated sequentially based on their order in the list. Use the two horizontal lines to reposition a team. If you haven't read how Team conditions are evaluated, be sure to read that at the beginning of the Teams section.
Channel Settings (Live Chat, Email, SMS)
Separate settings sections will appear for each channel where Assistants are active (configured at the top in General).
Live Chat
Live Chat
Display Knowledge Base Sources to User: Enabling this setting will provide a source URL at the end of an Assistant's response. This allows the student to find more information or context on the topic of inquiry.
The source will only display if the Assistant uses a URL source for content.
Sources are displayed both internally and externally in the thread.
Live Chat Conditions: Control on which pages where Live Chat is active should Assistants be enabled.
Email
Limit Email to a Segment: Restrict communication to certain users. If enabled, Assistants will exclusively respond to individuals within the segments you select on that channel.
Use this feature to do any testing before turning the feature on for your students.
SMS
SMS
Limit SMS to a Segment: Restrict communication to certain users. If enabled, Assistants will exclusively respond to individuals within the segments you select on that channel.
Use this feature to do any testing before turning the feature on for your students.
Assistant-to-Assistant Handoffs
Our intelligent Bolt Assistants for Students can seamlessly hand off queries to one another within the same team, ensuring students get the help they need without unnecessary delays. Here’s how it works:
Team-Based Handoff: Assistants can hand off to other assistants assigned to the same team. This ensures that students get specialized help when needed.
Internal Descriptions: Each assistant has an “internal description” setting. Use this to provide context on the assistant’s capabilities, such as specific skills and knowledge areas. These descriptions are readable by other assistants on the team, enabling them to determine when a handoff is appropriate.
Automated Process: Handoffs between assistants happen automatically, without the need for an on/off switch. If an assistant can’t assist with a specific task, it will check if another assistant on the team can help before offering to hand off to a human (if this skill is enabled).
Default Assistant: The default assistant, used when a student selects “I’m not sure” when choosing which assistant to speak with, does not hand off to other assistants. It’s designed to be an all-knowing assistant. For best results, ensure the default assistant has access to the same skills as your other assistants to minimize unnecessary human handoffs.
By configuring each assistant’s internal description and ensuring skill parity with the default assistant, you can optimize the student experience and ensure smooth, efficient interactions.