Data store handlers

Note: Data store handlers are excluded from the Dialogflow SLA.

Data store handlers are a special type of state handler that can provide LLM generated agent responses based on your website content and uploaded data.

To create this handler, you provide data stores when creating the agent.

Using these data store handlers, your agent can have conversations about the content with your end-users.

Limitations

The following limitations apply:

• This feature currently only supports select languages in GA. See the data store column in the language reference.
• Only the following regions are supported: global, us multi-region, and eu multi-region.
• The only structured data store type supported is FAQ.
• Apps with both chunked and non-chunked data stores are not supported.

Access control

If you are the project owner, you have all the permissions needed to create a data store handler. If you are not the project owner, you must have the following roles:

• Dialogflow Admin
• Discovery Engine Admin

For more information, see the access control guide.

Create an agent

To create an agent that uses data store handlers:

1. If you have not already, follow the setup instructions.

2. Go to the Agent Builder console:

   Agent Builder console

3. Select your project from the console drop-down.

4. If you have not already activated the API, read and agree to the Terms of Service, then click Continue and activate the API.

5. Click Create a New App or New App.

6. Select Chat.

7. Provide your company name in the Agent configurations section.

8. Expand the time zone and language settings section.

9. Select a time zone.

10. Select a default language.

11. Provide an agent name in the Your agent name section.

12. Select a region or multi-region in the Location of your agent section.

13. Click Continue.

14. Connect a data store to your agent by doing one of the following:

    • Select an existing data store that you previously created.
    • Create a new data store:
      1. Click Create New Data Store.
      2. Choose a data source.
      3. Provide data and configuration for the data store source you selected. Your data store location should correspond to the agent location.
      4. Click Create to create the data store.
      5. Select your new data store.

15. Click Create.

16. Your agent is now created, and you are automatically redirected to the Available data stores page, where you can add more data stores as needed.

17. If you have created a new data store for a website, you must verify your domain.

18. To open your agent with the Dialogflow CX console, click Preview in the left panel. In the console, you can edit or add data store handlers, deploy your agent, and optionally add flows that will handle scenarios not covered by the data stores.

Test your agent

Note: It can take up to 4 hours for new data store web content to be indexed and properly handled by your agent.

You can use the simulator to test your agent.

Deploy your agent

There are many ways to deploy your agent:

• The simplest option is to use an integration, which provides a user interface for your agent. Each integration provides instructions for deployment.

• The Dialogflow CX Messenger integration is a particularly good option for data store handlers. It has built-in options for generative features.

• You can create your own user interface and use the Conversational Agents (Dialogflow CX) API for interactions. Your user interface implementation is in control of deployment.

Special intents

In addition to handling questions about the content you provide, the agent can handle the following types of questions:

• Agent identification: Handles questions like "Who are you?" or "Are you human?".
• Escalate to a human agent: Handles questions like "I want to talk to a human" or "I want to talk to a real person".

This is accomplished by automatically generated intents and intent routes.

Add or edit data store handlers for an existing agent

Data store handlers are a special type of state handler. This means that you can apply them to flows or pages, and that they are evaluated using the same scope rules.

To add or edit a data store handler:

1. Go to the Dialogflow CX console.
2. Select your project.
3. Select the agent.
4. Select the flow associated with the data store handler. This is commonly the default start flow.
5. Select the page associated with the data store handler. This is commonly the start page.
6. Click Add state handler in the page data, then select data store.
7. If you need to create a data store, you will be taken to the Vertex AI Agent Builder user interface. See the data store information to help you make selections.
8. If you already have a data store, click Edit data store.
9. Make updates as needed and save when you are complete. See information below about data store specific settings.

Agent responses

In the Agent responses section, you can provide custom responses that reference generative answers. Use $request.knowledge.questions[0] in the Agent says section to provide the generative answer.

Data store response options

You can update the Link maximum field to indicate the maximum number of supplemental links that should be provided by the generative answers.