Skip to main content
The Chatbase Playground is where you preview and chat with your AI agent the way your customers will, before and after you deploy it. You can switch between channels such as the Chat Bubble, Help Page, Messenger, and Slack, and edit each channel’s settings while you watch the effect. The Playground is for anyone who builds or reviews the AI agent: workspace Owners and Members can test and edit there, and Viewers can test without changing settings. The Playground runs your draft, so changes you’ve saved but not published yet show up here first. Your live channels keep the published setup until you publish. See Drafts and versions. When you open the Playground, it automatically loads the last channel you were working on from the Channels page. For example, if you last viewed the Chat Bubble or Help Page, the Playground opens that same channel so you can continue testing without switching views.

What you can do:

See your AI agent the way a visitor will, change its style and capabilities in place, and share a preview link of your live AI agent with your team.
Use the Playground to:
  • Preview your AI agent’s behavior in real time
  • Test conversations and responses
  • Edit channel-specific settings, such as your AI agent’s style and capabilities, and immediately see how those changes affect the experience
To preview a different channel, click the channel name at the top of the page and pick one from the list, or choose View all channels to go to the Channels page.
The Playground previewing an AI agent in the Chat Bubble channel

​
Tabs

The tabs available depend on which channel you are previewing. A web channel such as Chat Bubble shows: Other channels expose a different set. Messenger, for example, replaces Voice with Leads, and the Slack channel uses Overview, Connections, Actions, and Extra Settings.

​
Instructions and global instructions

On the Overview tab, Sync with global instructions controls whether this channel uses your AI agent’s global instructions or its own. Leave it on to keep every channel consistent; turn it off to write instructions that apply only to this channel.

​
Chat as user

Chat as user starts a Playground conversation as an identified user of your choice, so you can see what a signed-in customer would see and test Actions that only run for an identified user. Click Chat as user in the top right, then:
  • User ID: the identifier the conversation runs under. A test ID is generated for you, and the refresh button beside the field generates a new one. Replace it with a real user ID to chat as that user.
  • Metadata: a JSON object of details for that user. Edit the name and email, or add your own fields, then chat to see how your AI agent handles that user. Your AI agent reads these values, and Actions receive them as {contact.*} variables.
For example, to check how your AI agent treats a customer on a paid plan, you could set the metadata to:
Then ask “Which features are included in my plan?” and check that the answer fits a Premium customer.
The Chat as user panel with a User ID and metadata for the test user
Click Chat as user to start the conversation. This is the Playground equivalent of the details your site passes with identity verification, so it’s the fastest way to check how your AI agent greets and handles a known customer.

​
Preview

Click Preview in the top-right to open your AI agent on a page of its own. The preview opens in a new tab and renders the AI agent on an otherwise empty page, so you can see and use it the way a visitor would instead of inside the Playground’s editing layout. The preview shows your live AI agent, the version your visitors get, not your draft. Changes you haven’t published yet only show in the Playground, so publish them to see them in the preview. A toolbar at the top of the preview page controls how the page around your AI agent looks:
  • Light and dark: switch the page background between light and dark to check your AI agent’s colors against both.
  • Upload background: upload an image, such as a screenshot of your own website, to sit behind the AI agent. This shows how your AI agent will look in place on your site before you deploy it anywhere.
Everything else behaves as it would once deployed, including initial messages, suggested questions, the floating bubble and its label, and the full conversation. At first, only members of your workspace can open the preview link. To share the preview with someone outside your workspace, such as a client, your manager, or a teammate:
1

Open the Preview menu

In the Playground, click the arrow next to Preview.
2

Turn on public access

Turn on Anyone with the link can view.
3

Copy and send the link

Choose Copy link and send it. Anyone with the link can open the preview without signing in, which makes it a convenient way to collect feedback before you deploy.
Turn the setting off to limit the link to your workspace again. The shared preview shows your published AI agent, so publish your draft before you ask for feedback on new changes.
The Preview dropdown with the Anyone with the link can view toggle and Copy link
Sharing is set separately for the Chat Bubble and Center Stage, so sharing one doesn’t share the other. Changing it requires permission to edit the AI agent.

​
Deploying

Click Deploy in the top-right to get the code or connection details for the current channel. For the Chat Bubble, the dropdown offers:
Open Preview, send your AI agent a few questions a real visitor would ask, and confirm the answers and the styling both hold up before you deploy.

​
Pre-deploy checklist

Before you click Deploy, use the Playground to confirm that:
  • Your AI agent answers your most common customer questions correctly, worded the way customers write them.
  • It gives a clear fallback reply, instead of a guess, for a question your Data Sources don’t cover.
  • It stays on topic when you ask about something unrelated to your business.
  • Escalation works: ask for a person and check that the AI agent offers a ticket or live chat.
  • Actions that need a signed-in customer work when you start the conversation with Chat as user.
  • The Display tab settings, such as colors, initial messages, and suggested messages, look right in Preview on both light and dark backgrounds.
  • The Chat Bubble’s Visibility toggle on the Overview tab is on.
  • You’ve clicked Publish, so your live channels and the preview link use the setup you tested.
For repeatable checks, such as a refund conversation you want to pass after every change, create Tests. A simulated customer talks to your AI agent and each conversation is graded automatically.

​
Limitations

  • The Playground isn’t a real store or site session. Some Actions behave differently there: cart updates don’t work, and payment completion isn’t reported back. Actions that need an identified customer, such as the Stripe Actions, run only when you start the conversation with Chat as user. See Shopify Actions and Stripe Actions.

​
Frequently asked questions

The Playground uses your draft, while your website, other channels, and the preview link use the published version. If you’ve saved changes without publishing, the two give different answers until you click Publish. Other reasons answers can differ:
  • Channel instructions: a channel with Sync with global instructions turned off uses its own instructions. Check you’re previewing the same channel your customers use.
  • Signed-in customers: your website may pass customer details through identity verification. Use Chat as user to test with the same details.
  • Actions: some Actions behave differently in the Playground. See Limitations.
  • Temperature: above 0, the same question can be worded differently each time. See Temperature.
Ask the question in the Playground, then click Show sources below the chat. It lists the Data Sources the AI agent used for that reply, so you can update or remove the one behind a wrong answer.
Yes. Each reply uses the message credits of the model that wrote it, the same as a reply in a real conversation. In Compare, each chat box’s reply uses the credits of its own model. See Models comparison.
Yes. Playground conversations are counted in Analytics, where Chats by channel lists them as Playground, and you can pause a Playground conversation from the chat logs in Activity like a conversation from any other channel. Conversations from Tests are not saved to your chat logs.
Yes. Click Chat as user, set a User ID, and edit the Metadata with the customer’s details. Your AI agent reads these values, and Actions receive them as {contact.*} variables. See Chat as user.
Click the arrow next to Preview, turn on Anyone with the link can view, and choose Copy link. Anyone with the link can chat with your published AI agent without signing in. See Share a preview link.
The Playground isn’t a real store or site session, so cart updates don’t work and payment completion isn’t reported back. Test those Actions from a live channel. See Shopify Actions.

​
Next steps

Channels

Configure each channel your AI agent runs on, and its display settings.

Build

Edit the instructions, model, and temperature behind every channel.

Actions

Give your AI agent things to do beyond answering questions.

Best Practices

Proven ways to improve the answers you’re seeing in the preview.