Testing your agent before going live
Before installing HaloDesk on your website, you should always test your agent to make sure it:
Understands your content
Answers questions correctly
Escalates when it should
HaloDesk makes this easy with the Playground.
What is the Playground
The Playground is a testing environment that uses the same chat widget your visitors will see on your website.
It lets you:
Ask the agent questions
Review how it answers
Adjust its behavior before going live
Messages sent in the Playground do not count as live conversations.
Testing basic knowledge
Start by asking:
Common customer questions
Questions based directly on your documentation
Variations of the same question
This helps you confirm the agent understands:
Your terminology
Your product features
Your support policies
Customizing behavior with the system prompt
Inside the Playground, you can customize the system prompt, which defines:
Tone of voice
Writing style
Rules the AI must follow
What the AI should or should not do
HaloDesk provides ready-to-use templates (for example, Support Agent) that you can use as-is or customize.
Changes to the system prompt take effect immediately in the Playground.
Testing escalation behavior
Make sure to test scenarios where the AI should escalate to human support, such as:
“I want to talk to a human”
Complex or ambiguous questions
Requests outside the knowledge base
When escalation happens, the conversation will appear in the agent’s Inbox as a ticket.
Testing after updates
You should revisit the Playground whenever you:
Add or remove sources
Update files or text
Change the system prompt
This ensures the AI is always aligned with your latest content.
When you’re ready to go live
Once you’re satisfied with the agent’s responses:
Install the chat widget on your website
Turn the widget on from the Deploy tab (this is on by default)