Conversations overview
Conversations are the unit of Zubby. Every interaction between a shopper and the agent — whether or not it led to a sale — is captured as a conversation record. This page explains the data model, what you can do with it, and how to find the conversations that matter.
The data model
| Entity | What it is |
|---|---|
| Conversation | The whole thread, scoped to one shopper session. Has a status, starting page, language, channel. |
| Message | A single turn — shopper input or AI reply. Stores text, citations, and any tool calls. |
| Tool call | A function the AI invoked: search products, get order status, etc. Stores arguments + raw output. |
| Citation | A reference back to a product, KB entry, or external page that backed an AI sentence. |
| Outcome | Resolved, abandoned, handed off, conversion attributed, negative feedback. Used in analytics and to surface gaps. |
Conversation lifecycle
- Started — the shopper opened the widget or received the welcome message.
- Active — at least one shopper message exchanged. Maximum 30 minutes of inactivity before the session is closed.
- Closed — naturally ended (shopper left, AI completed the task) or auto-closed by timeout.
- Handed off — escalated to a human; tracked as a separate ticket in the inbox until resolved.
Sessions vs. customers
Scoring
Every conversation is scored on five axes after it closes:
- Helpfulness — did the AI move the shopper toward an outcome?
- Citation strength — did the AI back its answers with strong sources?
- Confidence calibration — when the AI was confident, was it correct? When it hedged, was it right to hedge?
- Tone fit — did the AI sound on-brand?
- Outcome — handed off, conversion attributed, abandoned.
Scores feed the analytics dashboard and the weekly review (see Analytics).
Finding conversations
The inbox supports rich filters and full-text search across messages and citations. Common saved views:
- Handed-off conversations from the last 24 hours.
- Low-confidence answers needing review.
- Conversations that led to a conversion.
- Negative-feedback conversations.
Detailed inbox guide: Inbox.
Privacy
Conversation messages are encrypted at rest. PII (emails, phone numbers) is automatically redacted from logs and analytics views unless you have explicit access. Conversations are retained for 12 months by default; this is configurable per workspace from Settings → Privacy → Retention.
API
Conversations are readable via the REST API. You can list with cursor pagination, fetch a single conversation’s full transcript and tool calls, and subscribe to conversation events via outbound webhooks.