Custom Assistant Configuration

A Dust assistant is configured with a specific role, instructions, and access to a defined set of company data, rather than being one general chatbot for everyone. A Beam agent directs an incoming question to the assistant set up for that topic, such as an HR policy assistant or a product documentation assistant, based on rules a team has already defined for what belongs where. The matching assistant answers using only the sources it has access to. Questions that don't clearly match any configured assistant, or that reach outside its scope, are sent to a person instead of being forced through the closest match.

Grounded Answers from Connected Documents

Dust assistants can connect to a company's existing documents, such as a wiki or shared drive, so answers are drawn from material a team already maintains rather than general knowledge. A Beam agent submits a question with context to the relevant assistant, reads back the answer along with the source documents it cited, and posts both into the channel or ticket the question came from. This lets whoever asked check the answer against its source rather than taking it on faith. Answers with no clear source, or citing a document older than the account's threshold allows, are flagged for a person to confirm.

Assistant Handoff by Topic

Some questions start in one area, like billing, and turn into something a different assistant handles better, like a technical issue. A Beam agent recognizes when a conversation has shifted based on rules a team has approved, hands the exchange to the assistant configured for the new topic, and carries over context so the person asking doesn't have to repeat themselves. This keeps a single conversation coherent even as the subject changes. Handoffs that cross into a topic with no configured assistant, or that involve a request an assistant isn't authorized to act on, are passed to a person to take over directly.