Playbook helps you automate repetitive, manual tasks by connecting your apps and tools into Skills — no coding required. Instead of spending time on routine work, build a Skill once and let it handle the work for you automatically.
Creating a skill
To create a new skill:
Open Playbook in Text from the main menu.
Choose how you want to create your new skill:
a) From scratch: Click the + Create skill button.
b) From a template: Use one of the available templates.
How to create a skill from scratch
If you decide to build your skill from scratch, click + Create skill in the upper-right corner. Select For your workspace, and you’ll be taken directly to the builder.
Key components:
Add trigger — a trigger is an event that starts your skill.
Add action — an action is a task the skill performs after it is triggered.
Every skill must have a trigger and at least one action, but you can add multiple actions if needed.
Triggers and actions can be configured for Text-powered products, as well as 3rd party software — including dedicated actions for Salesforce and Klaviyo.Some products can be selected as both triggers and actions, while some are available only for individual blocks.
Example: Follow-up for negatively rated chats
Create a skill that follows up with customers by sending the chat transcript and a personalized message (for example, a request for additional feedback) via a ticket whenever a chat receives a negative rating. The skill creates tickets for your support team, enabling them to review customer feedback, address concerns, and resolve issues more efficiently.
This timely outreach helps you turn negative experiences into recovery opportunities, re-engage customers, and reduce churn. You can further optimize the experience by specifying the time delay between the rating and the delivery of the follow-up message to the customer.
1. Set the trigger
Since the follow-up message should be sent only when a chat receives a bad rating, set the trigger as follows:
Select Chats → Chat rated
Configure this action:
Select Bad rating from the list.
2. Add the first action: Wait
Select Built-in actions → Wait
Configure this action:
Specify the time delay between the rating and the delivery of the follow-up message to the customer.
Duration must be in the format XhYmZs, for example, 1h, 10m, 30s, 1h2m3s.
3. Add the second action: Get chat transcript
Select Chats → Get chat transcript
4. Add the third action: Get chat details
Select Chats → Get chat details
5. Add the fourth action: Create a ticket
Select Tickets → Create a ticket
Fill in the required fields:
Subject: Specify the ticket subject.
Message: Click {...} in the upper-right corner of the message field → Chat transcript → Chat transcript parameter. You can also add a custom message here to request additional feedback from the customer.
Requester email: Click {...} on the right-hand side → Get chat details → Visitor → Visitor email parameter.
Requester name: Click {...} on the right-hand side → Get chat details → Visitor → Visitor name parameter.
Optionally, you can also configure additional fields such as Status, Priority, Tags, or Followers, though these are not required for the skill to function properly.
6. Publish and test
Once everything is set up:
Go live with your skill by clicking the Publish button.
Test it by starting a chat on your website and verifying that the transcript is automatically sent via ticket.
Creating a skill from a template
You can also speed up this process and create skills using pre-built templates:
Go to Playbook and click Browse templates.
Select one of the available templates.
The trigger and action blocks will already be pre-configured with default data. You can further customize them to suit your specific needs.
Runs
The Runs section lets you view your skill logs and check which ones were successful and which ones failed. By clicking on a specific record, you can see the exact step where the skill failed and identify any incorrect configuration. This makes it easier to debug and adjust your skill setup.
You can filter Runs by Status:
All — shows every run.
Completed — runs that were successful.
Failed — runs that encountered an issue with either the trigger or one of the actions.
In Progress — runs that have not yet been completed.
Additionally, you can filter Runs by Time:
All time, Last 7 days, or Last 30 days.
Good to know
If you only need simple, ticket-only automation — for example, tagging or assigning tickets when a keyword appears — without building a full skill, Ticket rules may be a lighter-weight option.
For conditional logic, variables, and troubleshooting advanced skills, see Advanced Playbook usage
Frequently asked questions
Yes. A skill is what a workflow was called before — the same trigger-and-action logic under a new name. Any automation you built as a “workflow” now shows up as a skill in Playbook.
Yes. You can edit a skill at any time after publishing it. Just remember to publish your changes when you're done so they take effect.
If an action fails, you’ll see a notification that the skill failed, along with an indication of which step caused the issue. You can also check the run details to identify the failed step and troubleshoot its configuration.