---
title: "Getting Started with Assist"
description: "Create an Assist site, point it at your content, and add the widget to your pages — AI answers live in minutes."
url: https://edge.network/docs/assist/getting-started/
---

# Getting Started with Assist

Assist

# Getting Started

Four steps: create a site, ingest your content, embed the widget, make it yours.
Most integrations take under ten minutes.

## 1. Create a Site

In the [control panel](https://edge.network/account/assist),
go to **Assist → Create Site**. Give it a name and the hostname it will run
on (e.g. `example.com`).

You'll receive a **sitekey** (`ea_…`).
It's public — it goes straight into your HTML. There is no secret key: the API only
accepts requests for your sitekey from your registered hostname and its subdomains, so
the key is useless anywhere else. `localhost`
is always allowed, so you can test before deploying.

The hostname matters: it's what the origin check enforces. If your site moves domains,
update the hostname in **Assist → Settings** or the widget will stop answering.

## 2. Ingest Your Content

Assist answers only from content you give it. Publish a JSON index somewhere on your
domain (e.g. `/assist-index.json`),
usually as part of your site build:

```
{
  "hash": "sha256-of-the-content",
  "chunks": [
    {
      "url": "/pricing",
      "title": "Pricing",
      "section": "pricing",
      "text": "One chunk of page content, up to ~1,400 characters,\nsplit on sentence boundaries…"
    }
  ]
}
```

Set the index URL in **Assist → Ingestion** and hit **Re-ingest now**.
From then on Assist re-fetches it hourly and re-indexes whenever the
`hash` changes —
a site rebuild is all it takes to update what Assist knows.

The full format, chunking guidance, and limits are in
[Content Ingestion](https://edge.network/docs/assist/ingestion).

## 3. Add the Widget

One script tag, anywhere in your HTML (the exact snippet with your sitekey is on the
site's **Overview** page in Control):

```
<script src="https://assist.edge.network/widget.js"
  data-sitekey="ea_your_sitekey" defer></script>
```

This renders a floating launcher pill. Clicking it opens the assistant: instant search
results as visitors type, AI answers when they ask. Conversations survive page
navigations within the session.

Want it inline in a help centre, bound to ⌘K ,
or with no integration at all (a hosted page you can link to)? All the embedding modes
are in [Widget & Embedding](https://edge.network/docs/assist/widget).

## 4. Make It Yours

Under **Assist → Widget** you can set, without touching code:

- **Welcome message and placeholder** — the first thing visitors read.
- **Suggested questions** — chips shown before the first question; great for steering visitors to your best answers.
- **Launcher prompts** — rotating labels on the floating pill ("How can we help?", "Ask about pricing…").
- **Accent colour and position** — match your brand; bottom-right or bottom-left.
- **Handoff email** — set this to enable "Need a human?": visitors leave their email and the conversation lands in your inbox.
- **Keep exploring links** — curated links shown in the expanded view.

Then watch **Assist → Overview** and **Questions**: every question,
answered or not, is logged — unanswered questions are a to-do list for your content.

## Next Steps

[Widget & Embedding — every integration mode](https://edge.network/docs/assist/widget) [Content Ingestion — the index format in full](https://edge.network/docs/assist/ingestion) [Limits & Billing — what's free and what a question costs](https://edge.network/docs/assist/limits-and-billing)
[Back to Docs](https://edge.network/docs) [Need help?](https://edge.network/support)