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Help center · Start here

Create and manage your help center

Give customers a clear place to find answers. Start with one useful article, organize related answers into categories, and choose who can read them.

Publish your first article

  1. 1.Open your channel’s Help Center

    Select Channels in the sidebar, choose the channel, then open Help Center. You need an owner or admin role and a workspace that allows changes. Each channel has its own help center, categories, articles, and audiences.

  2. 2.Set the heading and address

    In Help center settings, edit Heading, Intro, and Address. Click outside each field to save it. Address is the final part of your hosted help-center URL. Use Copy help center address to share the finished center. Search and Was this helpful? can be switched on or off here.

  3. 3.Create a category

    Under Categories, enter a name such as Getting started. Choose Who can read this?, then select Add category. Use the pencil beside a category to change its name or audience, then Save. A category appears to readers once it contains a published article they can access.

  4. 4.Write your first article

    Select New article. Add a Title and write the answer in the editor. Choose a Category, check Who can read this?, and add an optional excerpt. Save draft keeps the article out of the reader-facing center; Publish makes it eligible to appear once the center is live.

  5. 5.Choose access before going live

    For a public center, leave Help center access set to Everyone. You can restrict individual categories or articles, or make the whole center private. Select Save access when you change the help-center audience or customer sign-in URL.

  6. 6.Publish and check the reader view

    Turn on the publish switch at the top of Help Center; the status changes to Live. Open the help-center address and check the article, category, search results, and feedback buttons. Test a signed-out browser as well as a verified customer if you use restrictions.

Two publishing controls: an article must be published and its help center must be Live. Drafts stay hidden even when the center is live. Turning the center off removes its hosted reader pages and widget Help entry; use article drafts to withdraw answers from AI knowledge too.

Choose who can read an answer

Everyone
Available to signed-out visitors and verified customers, subject to the help center and category restrictions.
Visitors
Available to people without a verified customer identity. A verified customer cannot see visitor-only answers.
Verified customers
Requires a customer identity signed by your application. Entering an email address or signing in to the Sonny staff dashboard does not verify a reader.
Customer audience
Narrow verified access to a named group, such as customers on a Pro plan. Define that group using server-signed traits.

A help-center rule applies to every category and article; a category rule also applies to its articles. An article cannot broaden its inherited access. If Who can read this? is read-only, change the parent’s settings to change that restriction.

Follow the audience and private help-center guide

Keep answers current

  • Edit: open an article, make your changes, and select Save changes. The updated live article replaces the old version. Save draft withdraws a published article.
  • Organize: select a different Category in the article editor. Drag article rows or use their move controls to order answers within a category. Category ordering is also available through the API and MCP.
  • Check performance: live rows show views and, once readers vote, the helpfulness score. The article detail API provides viewCount, helpfulYes, and helpfulNo as read-only fields.
  • Use your domain: in Custom domain, enter a subdomain you control and follow the DNS records shown by Sonny. Wait for the domain to be Live before sharing it. The public address then uses your domain.
  • Widget and AI: accessible published articles appear in the widget’s Help tab. Published article content is indexed for AI answers, with the same audience restrictions. The AI uses the conversation’s verified identity; contact fields alone do not unlock answers.
  • Delete with care: deleting an article is permanent. Deleting a category keeps its articles and makes them uncategorized. Its inherited restriction is removed, so review the articles’ own access before deleting a restricted category.

Writing elsewhere? Sync HTML or Markdown articles, categories, media, and settings from your existing system.

Set up a Knowledgebase sync

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