Connected support — your tools & live data.

A bot that only knows your docs can answer "what's your return policy?" but not "where's my order?" This lesson connects it to your live systems so it gives accurate, current answers and takes useful actions — safely.

The mental model

Static docs answer general questions; live connections answer "about me" questions.

The jump to real usefulness is connecting the bot to the systems that hold current truth — orders, accounts, tickets. Now it can answer "where's order 1042?" with the real status, not a guess. Same honesty rule applies: only state what the system actually returns.

The reframeRead first, act later. Let it look up live info (read-only) long before you let it change anything. A bot that can cancel orders is a much bigger trust decision than one that reports status.

Step 01 · Watch a connected answer

Connected, the bot can pull live status instead of guessing. Press run on "Where's my order 1042?":

customer "Where's my order #1042?" ✓

lookup query order system (read-only) ✓

live data status: shipped, arrives Thu, tracking #ZX91 ✓

reply "Your order shipped and arrives Thursday — tracking ZX91." ✓

That's a real answer from real data — not a guess. The bot only said what the system actually returned. If the lookup had failed, the honest move is "I can't reach the order system right now — let me connect you to a person."

Step 02 · Connect safely

Make the safe call when wiring the bot to live systems:

What access does it get first?

When the system is down?

A connected bot is a real attack surface and a real liability. It can leak one customer's data to another or take a costly action on a bad request. Scope it to the specific data it needs, start read-only, log every action, and confirm before anything irreversible — see the Secure Your AI Use build.

Your challenge: connect it to live data

Connect one live source read-only (orders, accounts, or tickets).
Test an "about me" question and confirm it uses real data.
Test a system-down case and confirm it escalates honestly.
Scope access tightly and log what it looks up.

✓

Build a Support Chatbot — complete

You can build a bot from your own content, make it genuinely helpful with handoff and capture, and connect it to live systems for accurate answers — kept honest and scoped. Ready for the next one?

Next build

Run Deep Research — briefs and reports you can trust

Start Deep Research →

All builds Back to Support Chatbot