Quick start

This guide takes a business owner from nothing to a live assistant answering real customers. Plan on about 30 minutes. Each step links to the page that covers it in full.

You will need: an email address, a few documents that hold your business facts (policies, prices in text form, contact details, FAQs), and access to your website or a WhatsApp Business phone number.

1. Sign up and create your workspace#

1. Sign up on the Sela website.
2. Setup starts straight away and has four steps, shown as "Step 1 of 4" at the top:
   • Your business name (1 to 100 characters). This creates your workspace. You can rename it later.
   • Your business type: restaurant or café, store, clinic, salon or bookings, or services and other businesses. Tick We have more than one branch if you run several. That is a one-way choice, so if you are unsure read Multiple branches first.
   • Your first channel: where customers message you most (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram or website chat).
   • Connect it: the last step connects that channel without leaving setup. See Connect a channel.

If you were invited to an existing workspace, or already belong to one, you land on the workspace list instead: accept the invitation or open your workspace. Joining a workspace never creates a new one or a new trial. If you signed up before your invitation arrived, the first step has a check your invitations link.

The business type you pick sets your Environment, which adds tools and playbooks suited to that business. You can change it later under Settings, then Environment. Changing it adds tools and never removes your existing setup.

2. Choose a plan or start the trial#

On the channel step, choose Start my 7-day trial. No card is needed. The trial gives two staff accounts the Operations features and 20 AI credits for the whole trial, not per month. Eligible restaurant and store trials also include 10 customer verification sends. When the 7 days end, the workspace returns to the free Sandbox plan unless a payment has been confirmed, and unused trial credits expire. Full details, limits and prices are on Plans and billing.

Only organization admins and owners can buy or change a plan. To pay, open Settings, then Plan & usage.

The first step is always a live channel. For services and other businesses, the rest is a ready knowledge document and an AI answer. Processing or failed documents do not complete the knowledge step. Website chat needs your explicit confirmation after installing and checking it; saving widget design settings does not prove installation.

Restaurant and standard store workspaces also need an active menu with an available dish, or an added product, and valid pickup or delivery settings. Review prices, availability and checkout before taking orders. If you chose website as the first channel, publish your storefront. The channel step is named after the channel you chose, but any live channel completes it: a connected WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger account, a Telegram bot, a published storefront or a confirmed website chat.

The setup steps' customer-chat link uses ordinary AI credits and appears in your inbox and reports. Ask informational questions. Avoid confirming orders or payments while checking answers.

3. Set the assistant identity#

The assistant answers only under your own brand, never Sela's, so give it a name and a voice first.

1. Open Automation, then AI assistant (in the Catalog & AI section), then the Identity tab.
2. Enter the Assistant name. Fill in Brand name shown only if it differs from your workspace name.
3. Choose a Tone and a Reply length.
4. Add a few short rules under Always and Never, for example "Reply in Iraqi Arabic when the customer writes Arabic".
5. Press Save changes in the bar at the bottom.

The AI assistant page needs the AI Assist add-on. See Assistant identity and scope.

4. Add your knowledge#

The assistant answers from what you give it. It does not invent prices, hours, addresses or policies.

1. Open Automation, then Catalog & AI, then Knowledge base.
2. Select Add documents and upload files: PDF, HTML, TXT, Markdown, CSV, JSON, DOCX or XLSX, up to 25 MB each.
3. Wait until each file shows ready before testing. Indexing uses a small amount of AI credit.
4. If you sell products or dishes, add them to your catalog too (Store, then Inventory). Live prices and availability come from the catalog, not from documents.

There is no website import: copy web text into a document or a Smart note. See Knowledge base and Catalog and products.

5. Connect a channel#

Pick one to start. You can add more later.

Setup's last step, and the channel step on Home, open a Connect page for the channel you chose. It lists what to have ready and runs the connection there: Meta's sign-up window for WhatsApp, a sign-in and return for Instagram and Messenger, a bot for Telegram, and a one-line snippet with a test chat for website chat. You can switch to another channel on the same page, choose I'll do this later, or ask Sela to connect it with you. WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger need a running trial or a plan; the page says so and offers to start your trial if it has not started. Telegram and website chat do not.

The same connections are always available from Integrations, as described below.

Option A: install the web chat widget#

1. Open Integrations, and choose the Website Widget option.
2. Copy the snippet for your site (HTML, React, Next.js, JavaScript or React Native) and paste it before the closing </body> tag.
3. Publish your site and reload a page. The chat button appears in the corner.
4. Return to the website chat step on Home (or in Getting started) and choose I've installed chat and checked it. This records your confirmation, not an automatic scan of your site. You can undo the confirmation if the installation changes.

If you write the snippet by hand, the attribute is data-organization-id:

<script
  src="https://usesela.com/widget.js"
  data-organization-id="YOUR_ORGANIZATION_ID"
  async
></script>

Colors, greeting and suggestions are set in Widget Customization. See Web chat widget and, for developers, Widget JavaScript API.

Option B: connect WhatsApp#

1. As a workspace admin, open Settings, then Workspace setup, then Integrations, and choose Add channel.
2. Choose the WhatsApp card available to your workspace (which cards appear depends on your workspace) and follow the signup.
3. Use a number that can be registered to the WhatsApp Cloud API. A number still active in the regular WhatsApp app or the WhatsApp Business app needs a coexistence path instead.

For the AI to answer on WhatsApp, the channel's AI automation switch must also be on. See WhatsApp for paths, message windows and templates. Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, email and SMS are covered in Messenger and Instagram, Telegram and Email and SMS.

6. Test a real conversation#

On Integrations, open the web chat install dialog and select Test chat. It opens your chat in a new tab, exactly as customers see it, so you can try it before your site is live.

1. Open your website in a private browser window (or message your WhatsApp number from a different phone).
2. Ask a question your documents answer, then one they do not.
3. Open Conversations, then Inbox in the dashboard and find the conversation.
4. Check that the answer is correct and that the assistant declines or hands over what it cannot verify.

If the assistant does not reply at all, one of its gate checks failed: plan, credits, identity, conversation state or channel switch. Go to Troubleshooting. If replies are wrong or hedged, add the missing fact, as described in Improving answer quality.

7. Invite your team#

1. Open Settings, then People, then Team.
2. Choose Invite teammate, enter an email address and pick Member or Admin.
3. Choose Send invite.

Invitations count toward your seat limit. Each person accepts by email, then uses the dashboard or the mobile app. See Team, roles and permissions for roles and seats.

Go-live checklist#

Before you announce the channel to customers, confirm each item.

What to do next#

• Learn the dashboard in the Platform tour.
• Learn the vocabulary in Core concepts.
• Set up automations for routine assignment and follow-up.
• If you would like help, Sela offers paid setup services, listed on Plans and billing.