Home modules and publishing
Configure the widget home surface and its modules, choose a home mode, set state-aware greetings, and publish safely with draft and published configs.
Beyond a chat box, the widget can open onto a support home: a set of modules that let a visitor self-serve, browse your public surfaces, or start a conversation. You choose which modules appear and in what order.
Home modes
The home mode sets the overall shape of the opening surface:
- Chat only: the classic single chat panel.
- Support home: a home screen with modules (the product default for new widgets).
- Help first: leads with help search and articles.
- Portal: opens the full customer portal surfaces inside the widget.
- Embedded: the widget content embedded inline in a page rather than in a floating window.
Modules
The support home is a list of modules, each of which you enable or disable, in the order you set:
| Module | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Start conversation | A button to begin a new chat. |
| Search help | A search box over your help center. |
| Suggested articles | Recommended help articles. |
| Quick actions | Shortcut buttons you define. |
| Previous conversations | The visitor's earlier chats. |
| My tickets / Tickets | The visitor's open tickets. |
| Feedback | Your public feedback board. |
| Roadmap | Your public roadmap. |
| Changelog | Your latest releases. |
| Status | Your status page. |
Some modules need a recognized visitor. Previous conversations, my tickets, and the personal tickets list only appear for a visitor identified through signed identity (see the developer docs). The feedback, roadmap, changelog, and status modules render for anyone; the per-customer state (following, subscribed, voted) layers on when the visitor is recognized.
Greetings
Greetings can be state-aware, so the message a visitor sees fits their situation: a recognized returning customer, someone arriving outside business hours, a visitor already in a human chat, a first-time visitor, and so on. Hark picks the most specific matching greeting.
Draft and publish
The studio edits a draft config while the live embed keeps rendering the published config. Nothing you change is visible to customers until you publish, so you can design in the open without risk. Publishing promotes the draft to live. The same draft-and-publish separation applies to the widget's scripted chat flows (see Chat flows and bots).
Widget kinds
A widget is one of three kinds: a chat widget, a feedback widget, or a changelog widget. A chat widget answers visitors either by walking scripted flows (manual mode) or through the AI bot (AI mode), configured by the bot persona, sources, and instructions.