Open your agent on a job with Action Links
Turn a button, a link or a campaign URL into a conversation that starts on a job you set, such as booking a meeting or collecting what a quote needs.
An Action Link opens your agent on a job. A visitor clicks "Get a quote" on your pricing page, and the agent opens already working on the quote: it reads the page, uses what it knows about the visitor, and asks for what is still missing. You set the job. The agent writes its own words.
This article covers creating an Action, putting it on a button, a link or a campaign URL, and reading what fired.
What is an Action?
An Action is a job for one conversation, plus what it opens. Each Action has:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | What you see in the list, such as "Request a quote". |
| Link id | What your page uses, such as request-a-quote. Letters, numbers, dashes and underscores. |
| Job | What the agent should do in this conversation: the goal and what to collect. Not the words. |
| Opens | Where the agent takes the visitor first: the conversation, a meeting, your best content for the page, a tour, an experience or a form. |
| Destination | Optional. A page on your site. Set it and the link sends people there; leave it empty and the link opens the agent on whatever page it is clicked. |
| Fires when | On a click, on arrival with a matching campaign or referrer, or both. |
| Campaign context | What the visitor was just told, such as "The email promised a quote within one business day". The agent honours it. |
Your page only ever names the link id. The job, the target and the context stay in ShowPilot, so nobody can change what your agent does by editing a link.
How do you create an Action?
Open the Launch tab
Go to Agents, open the agent, and select the Launch tab. Scroll to Action Links.
Add the Action
Select Add action. Start from a common job such as Request a quote or Book a meeting, or write your own. Give it a name, write the job, pick what it opens and when it fires. Select Add action.
Actions are live as soon as you save them. You do not need to publish the agent again.
How do you use the link?
Select Copy link next to an Action, or open the Action and look under Link. The Action's destination decides what you get:
- No destination. The link is
#action=request-a-quote. Use it as the link on any button or CTA component on your site, on any page. Nothing navigates; the agent opens right there. - A destination. The link is the full address, such as
https://your-site.com/pricing#action=request-a-quote, with campaign tags if you add them. Use it in an email, an ad, a QR code, a shared message, or as the redirect after a form submit. The visitor lands on the page with the agent already open.
Where do you paste it?
Wherever your site builder asks for a button's link or URL. The link is a normal web link, so every builder and CMS accepts it, and it works on any page that has the ShowPilot tag.
| Builder | Where the link goes |
|---|---|
| WordPress | Button block → Link |
| Webflow | Button → Link settings → URL |
| HubSpot | Button or CTA → Link → URL |
| Squarespace | Button → Link → URL |
| Framer | Link → URL |
| Shopify | Button → Link |
If a builder insists on a full web address, give the Action a destination and use that link. On the same page it behaves exactly like the short form.
Two things must be true for the link to open the agent: the ShowPilot tag is installed on the page, and the agent is deployed there. Without them the visitor just sees the page.
The link fires once per visit, then the address is cleaned, so a reload or a forwarded link does not fire it again. Developers can also call showpilot.open({ action: 'request-a-quote' }) from their own code.
What happens when an Action fires?
- If the agent is not open yet, it opens on the task.
- If the agent is already open, the task joins the current conversation. The visitor keeps their history.
- If the agent is mid-reply, the Action waits for the reply to finish. Nothing is cut off and nothing is dropped.
- A click means the visitor asked. When the Action opens a meeting, the agent offers it straight away.
- An arrival rule means the visitor did not click. The agent suggests, and a meeting is still earned in the conversation.
Test it
Open a page of your site that has the button, or paste the deep link into the address bar. The agent should open and speak about the job straight away, using what is on the page. Click the same button again: the panel opens, and the conversation carries on where it was.
What can you read?
Each Action in the list shows how many times it fired in the last 7 days. Each fire is also recorded on the conversation, so you can see which Action started it in Inbound.