Handbook
Published
Updated
Your account's handbook holds the written process your agents work from: pages that describe how your company does things, and playbooks that turn one of those processes into tasks that start on their own.
On web, open Handbook from the navigation sidebar or drawer. On iOS and Android, switch to Configure and open Handbook. The handbook's page tree lists the account's pages and playbooks; select an entry to read it.
How the Handbook Is Organized
Pages nest. A page with pages under it acts as a section, and a playbook sits under the page whose process it automates, so the list reads as an outline instead of one long roll of documents.
Sections you collapse stay collapsed as you move around and when you come back, remembered per account. A page or playbook you create lands under whatever you have open at the time, so new documents file themselves where you are working.
An agent's role page is a handbook page too. See Agents for how an agent's job description is assigned.
An agent session can receive relevant handbook page bodies in full. It also receives a table of contents for every other page in the account's handbook, with each page's title, description, and ID, even when the handbook is large. The agent can read any listed page or search the handbook when it needs more guidance. Full page bodies have a separate size limit; a page that does not fit remains in the table of contents.
Pages and playbooks share one order within each section. When you create or restore an entry, it joins that order without giving two entries the same position. Reordering an entry inserts it at the chosen spot and shifts later entries down. Moving an entry to another section without choosing a position puts it at the end. Deleting a page moves its children up a level while keeping a consistent order there. Long page listings keep a stable order as you load more, even when entries have the same position and creation time.
The Screen on Web
Three columns, left to right:
- The table of contents. A rail listing every page and playbook as a nested tree, with a search field at the top and an Archived link at the foot. It starts 272px wide.
- The document. The page you are reading or editing, in a readable column.
- On this page. An outline of the document's headings. Click an entry to scroll to it. The document's actions sit below the outline.
On web, open the + menu beside search in the handbook rail, then choose New page or New playbook. The menu stays in the slim strip when the rail is hidden. A new document is filed under the page you have selected, as a sibling of a selected playbook, or at the top level when nothing is selected.
Resizing the Table of Contents
On web, drag the divider between the table of contents and the document to change the rail's width. Wallfacer remembers your chosen width in this browser across navigation and reloads. Hiding and showing the rail restores that width.
Hiding the Table of Contents
The rail hides, so the document gets the pane. Click the panel icon beside the search field (Hide table of contents). Hidden, the same button sits alone in a slim strip at the document's left edge (Show table of contents), which is where the rail was.
The choice is remembered in your browser, across every account you open in it, until you show the rail again. There is no keyboard shortcut for it: ⌘B stays with the app's own sidebar. Creating a page or a playbook brings the rail back, so the new document is visible in it.
The rail is a web control. Native has no inner rail, so there is nothing to hide there.
Writing a Page
On web a page is edited in place and saves as you type: the document reports Saving…, then Saved, and says so when a save fails. On iPhone and Android a document opens read-only with an Edit toggle in the navigation bar.
Every page offers Copy link for a link straight to the document, including locked and read-only pages. See Sharing a Page. Pages you can edit also offer:
- History for every earlier version of it.
- Filed under to move the page somewhere else in the tree. Pages nest as deep as you like; a playbook is always a leaf.
- Reorder to move a page up or down among its siblings.
- Delete page. Anything filed under it moves up a level rather than going with it, and deleted documents are restorable from Archived.
Some pages are locked by an administrator, including the onboarding pages a new account starts with. A locked page shows a Locked badge and cannot be edited. Copying its link still works.
Finding a Page or Playbook
The search box at the top of the handbook list narrows the whole handbook to what you are looking for. It works on web, iOS, and Android.
- Titles and descriptions match as you type. The first keystroke already filters the list, with no wait.
- Words inside a page match a moment later. Content matches come from the server just after you stop typing, so a page you remember by a phrase in its body is findable without remembering its title. Playbook names and descriptions are searched the same way.
- Every match keeps its place in the outline. A hit is shown with the pages above it rather than flattened into a list, so you can see where it lives before you open it. Sections open on their own while a search is running.
- A one-character query matches titles only. Below two characters, page content is not searched, and the list says "Keep typing to search page content." rather than reporting no matches.
- A broad query is capped. When more matched than the list shows, it says "More matches than shown. Narrow the search." Type more of what you are after to bring the set down.
Clearing the box puts the handbook back the way you left it: the same sections open, and the same scroll position. Use the clear button in the box, or delete what you typed.
To search across your whole account rather than the handbook alone, including tasks, sessions, and environments, use the Search API.
Sharing a Page
Every page carries a Copy link action, and it is there even on a page you can only view. Copy the link, send it to a teammate, and opening it lands them on that page. The button confirms with a brief "Copied" check so you know it took.
The link points at the page itself, not its place in the outline, so it keeps working after the page is moved or renamed.
Recovering a Deleted Page or Playbook
Nothing in the handbook is hard-deleted. Archived, at the foot of the handbook list, holds deleted pages and archived playbooks with their content and history intact, and restores any of them.
A restored page comes back as it was, at the top level if the section it lived in is gone. A restored playbook comes back disabled, so it does not start spawning tasks again before you have looked at it.