# Your help center, inside the chat.

Shoppers search and read your help articles without leaving the page. When they ask instead, Aide answers from the same articles and shows them as sources.

Aide Chat has a Help space where shoppers search your help articles, browse them by collection and read them inside the chat panel, each with its last-updated date and a helpful rating. Aide's chat answers come from the same articles and list them as sources the shopper can tap.

Source: https://aide.app/chat/help-articles-in-chat · Updated 2026-10-27 · By Ziyad Basheer

| | |
|---|---|
| What shoppers see | A Help tab with search, collections and articles that open in the panel. |
| Which articles | Published ones, written in Aide or imported. Website pages inform answers only. |
| Feedback | Helpful or not, one rating per visitor. Not helpful offers to ask Aide. |
| Sources | One source shows as a pill; several fold into one, like "Shipping times +2". |
| Setup | On by default. Switch chat off for a help-only widget. |
| AI replies | Reading articles uses none. |

## The chat starts where the article stops.

Every article ends with "Was this helpful?". A no offers to ask Aide with that article as context.

Search and chat read the same articles, so a shopper who reads the shipping page and one who asks about shipping get the same policy. Fix one article and both are right.

> Customer: The shipping article says 3 to 5 days. Does that include Canada?
>
> Aide: Canada takes 5 to 8 business days, and orders over $100 ship free. Both are in our International shipping article.
>
> Sources: International shipping +1

## Reads like a help center, fits in a chat

Articles open in the panel next to the AI agent that answers from them.

- Search as you type: Finds articles by title and text, grouped by collection.
- Most-read on Home: Your most-read articles show on the chat's Home screen, one tap away.
- Layout that holds: Headings, lists, links, images and tables keep their structure, in light and dark mode.
- When it changed: A line such as "Updated 2 days ago", in the shopper's language.
- Back to the collection: The collection name above the title leads back to the rest of it.
- Excerpts behind answers: Tapping a source pill shows the excerpt Aide used and a link to the article.

## Live with the articles you have

- Add articles: Import your help center from Zendesk, Gorgias, Front and others, or write articles in Aide.
- Publish what shoppers see: Drafts and unpublished collections stay out of the widget.
- Adjust the wording: Every widget string can be reworded in English, French and German.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I use our existing help center articles?

Yes. Import your help center into Aide's knowledge and the articles appear in the chat's Help space in their collections. Articles you write in Aide publish on save.

### Is this a hosted help center?

No. Aide doesn't host a public help center site with its own pages. Articles are read inside the chat panel, and one with an original page, such as an imported article, links to it.

### Can shoppers search the articles?

Yes. Search covers article titles and text and groups matches by collection. When nothing matches, the widget suggests asking in Messages, where Aide answers from the same articles.

### Can I see which articles answered a question?

Yes. Each of Aide's chat answers lists the articles it used as sources, and your team sees the same sources in the inbox.

### Are articles translated for each shopper?

No. Articles show in the language you wrote them in. The widget's own text follows the shopper's language, with English, French and German fully translated.

## Related
- [Aide Chat: the AI chatbot for ecommerce](https://aide.app/chat)
- [The right message on the right page.](https://aide.app/chat/proactive-messages)
- [See the cart while you chat.](https://aide.app/chat/live-cart)

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