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About the TECSmith Agent

About Me

I am the TECSmith Agent: a self-service assistant and conversational agent for the TECSmith digital ecosystem. You can talk to me here on the website, on Discord and Telegram, and through the native TECSmith apps for Android, Linux and Windows.

I sit inside a larger application that also runs the TECSmith website. That covers publishing, the product catalogue, member accounts and dashboards, messaging, orders and the management tools behind them. Whichever channel you use, you reach the same core, so your account, requests and history follow you between them.

What I'm Here For

My main job is to make it quick and painless for new and existing members to get things done:

  • Explore services: Find out about the apps, communications, storage, web and web scraping services that TECSmith offers, and see examples of work we've built.
  • Request a quote: Describe what you need and I'll put together a confirmed service request or quotation.
  • Check domains: See whether a domain name is free before you commit to it.
  • Get support: Tell me what's gone wrong and I'll raise a support ticket with its own reference, straight to the help desk.
  • Pick up where you left off: Say goodbye partway through and I'll keep your answers until you're back. Returning members can also look back over their past quotes.

You can click the buttons I offer or just type, in your own words. I'll answer questions along the way ("how much does it cost?", "can I see your work?") and bring us back to where we were. If you change your mind, I'll check before switching so nothing you've told me is lost by accident.

Your request is then saved to your existing account, or a new account is created for you if you don't have one yet.

How a Request Works

  1. Tell me what you need: Pick one of the options I show, or just say it, like "I need a website for my bakery". For a website I'll ask what kind of site it is and your rough budget, and I may show you something similar we've built.
  2. Tell me who you are: I'll ask for your email address and your name. If you already have an account, I'll send a one-time code to your email to confirm it's really you, then carry on with your request.
  3. Describe your project: I'll ask questions that fit the service you chose, such as what to call it and which features you need.
  4. Add the extras: Depending on the service, you can search for and register a domain, set up a branded email address and choose a hosting plan.
  5. Review and confirm: You'll see a summary of everything before anything is sent. If something's wrong, you can edit any detail or start over.
  6. Submit: Your request is logged, the TECSmith team is notified straight away, and you'll get a confirmation. New members also receive an email to set a password and activate their account.

Support requests are shorter: describe the problem, give me your email address and name, and you'll get a ticket reference. Replies arrive by email, and members can follow the ticket and reply from their dashboard.

At any point you can type cancel to drop the current request or /help to see what I can do. I'm also happy to chat if you just want to say hello, and on the website I can read my replies aloud.

Your Privacy

  • If your email address already has an account, you confirm it with a one-time code before I link anything to it, so nobody can use your account in your name.
  • Support tickets are kept so the team can help you, and are only linked to your account once you've confirmed your email.
  • For web chat, I keep only a short summary of each conversation (its title, the steps reached and how it ended), never a full transcript.
  • Those summaries are deleted automatically 30 days after the conversation's last activity.

Beyond the Chat

The same application powers the rest of the TECSmith website:

  • Publishing: Articles, products, categories, tags, profiles, documents and managed downloads.
  • Showcases: Curated catalogues of TECSmith applications, music and websites, including live Google Play reviews, versions and install statistics.
  • Member accounts: Sign in with a password or a social account, with email verification, password recovery, profiles and preferences.
  • Member dashboard: One place for your activity, messages, conversations, support tickets, notifications, orders and settings.
  • Commerce: Persistent baskets, orders, invoices, product features and reviews.
  • Management tools: Role-based tools for publishing, commerce, users, leads, support tickets, newsletters, teams and site telemetry.

Platform Integrations & Communication Channels

  • Live now: Website chat, Discord, Telegram, and the native TECSmith apps for Android, Linux and Windows.
  • Coming soon: Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn, Signal, Slack and WhatsApp.

Under the Hood

For the technically curious, I'm built with:

  • Next.js 16, React 19 and TypeScript 6 for the website, the API and the agent endpoints.
  • PostgreSQL with Prisma 7 for accounts, requests, support tickets, orders and conversation records.
  • Auth.js for secure sign-in and role-aware access.
  • Google Sheets as an extra log of incoming service requests, alongside the main database.
  • WhoAPI for domain availability and WHOIS lookups.
  • Google Cloud Storage for images, documents and downloadable assets.
  • Nodemailer and React Email for verification codes, account emails, support replies and notifications.
  • The browser's own speech to read chat replies aloud.
  • Google reCAPTCHA v3 to keep spam and bots away from the forms.

This application is created by TECSmith (tecsmith.info).