Everything you need to run Orastra
From first login to full autonomy — how to teach it your business, connect it to your tools, and decide what it's allowed to do without you.
Getting started
Four steps, in this order. Most teams finish in an afternoon — the slow part is deciding what Orastra is allowed to do on its own, not the setup.
- 1
Tell it about your business
Name, industry, hours, timezone, and the voice it should speak in. This is the frame every answer is built on — a clinic and a law firm get very different defaults.
Open onboarding - 2
Give it something to know
Paste your prices, policies, and FAQs, or import a doc. Orastra answers from this and nothing else, so ten honest lines beat a hundred vague ones.
Add knowledge - 3
Open a way to reach it
A printed QR code is fastest — download it and it works at once. A phone number, WhatsApp, email or your website work too. Until you open one, only you can reach it.
Start with a QR code - 4
Watch it work, then loosen the reins
Start with sensitive actions set to approve. Once a week of transcripts looks right, switch the ones you trust to automatic.
Tune behaviour
How Orastra thinks
Four ideas explain almost every behaviour you'll see, including the surprising ones.
- Knowledge
- What Orastra knows about your business — retrieved by meaning, not keywords, so a customer asking "how much to get my teeth cleaned" still finds a price list entry titled "Hygiene appointment".
- Tools
- The actions it can take: check the calendar, book, email, create a task, escalate. Each tool is separately permissioned, so "can read the calendar" and "can book into it" are different grants.
- Escalation
- The exit hatch. When a request is ambiguous, sensitive, or outside its permissions, Orastra stops, hands the thread to a human, and says so to the customer rather than guessing.
- Memory
- Facts it writes back as it works — a customer's preferred appointment slot, a policy it was corrected on. This is what makes month three better than week one.
Teaching it your business
Orastra answers from your knowledge base and refuses to invent the rest. That is why it can be trusted with customers — and why a thin knowledge base makes it look evasive.
Write entries the way you'd answer a customer out loud — specific, self-contained, one fact each. “A hygiene appointment is £75 and takes 30 minutes” is usable. “We offer competitive pricing” is not.
Start with what your front desk answers ten times a week: hours, prices, parking, what to bring, your cancellation policy. Then read the transcripts — every escalation is a gap with a name on it.
How customers reach it
These are the ways a customer reaches yours. Open as many as you like — they share one memory and one inbox, so a caller who later sends a WhatsApp is recognised as the same person.
If you only do one, do the QR code. It is the only one with nothing to configure, and it works for a business with no website at all.
A QR code
Nothing — download and printPrint it on a poster, a menu, a receipt or a van. A customer points their camera at it and is talking to your assistant. Scan it again next month, on any device, and the chat picks up where it stopped. Needs no website and no phone number.
Get your codeYour website
One line of HTMLA chat bubble in the corner of your own site. Paste one line of code before the closing body tag. Works on WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Webflow.
Get the snippetThe phone
A number, bought in-appA real number, answered on the first ring, out loud, at 2am. It answers questions and books the appointment during the call. Asks for a person? It hands over.
Set up a numberWhatsApp and SMS
Twilio, or the sandbox in a minuteThe same assistant on the channel most customers would rather use. Texts and WhatsApp messages from one number share a single thread, because it is one person either way.
Connect messagingYour inbox is swept on a schedule and genuine enquiries are answered. Newsletters and receipts are screened out and left alone, so nothing gets a cheerful reply it shouldn't.
Connect emailAbout the QR code specifically. On a first scan it asks for a name and a number. One step, and they can skip it. Give it, and the assistant greets them by name next time and saves them to Contacts. The chat then follows them from phone to laptop.
Print it from QR code in the dashboard. Take the ready-made poster, or the code alone as a PNG or SVG. It is also a plain link, so it works in an Instagram bio or an email signature.
Connecting your tools
Orastra works inside the tools you already have. Nothing is migrated. The channels above are where customers arrive; these are what it uses to follow through.
EmailRead and send email on your behalf.
Let Orastra read and send email from your business inbox — Gmail or your own mail server.
What Orastra can do
- Draft and send replies, confirmations, and follow-ups
- Read incoming email to answer questions and take action
- Attach price lists or documents from your knowledge base
You'll need
- For Gmail: a Gmail or Google Workspace account
- For any other mailbox: its address and password — an app password if two-factor is on
Steps
- 1Pick how you get your email above.
- 2Gmail: sign in with Google and approve send + read access.
- 3Any other mailbox: enter the address and password — we find your mail server for you.
- 4We sign in to check it works before saving anything.
- 5You'll return here with Email marked Connected.
Supported providers
Calendar & SchedulingBook, move, and cancel appointments.
Connect Google Calendar so the assistant books into the same diary your team already works from.
What Orastra can do
- Check real availability before offering a time
- Create, reschedule, and cancel appointments
- Respect your opening hours and the events already in the calendar
- A booking made at 2am is in your calendar when you wake up
You'll need
- A Google account with edit access to the calendar you book into
Steps
- 1Click Connect to open Google's own sign-in.
- 2Choose the account whose calendar holds your appointments.
- 3Approve reading and editing events.
- 4Set your opening hours in Settings → Availability, so slots are offered inside them.
Supported providers
MessagingChat with customers on WhatsApp or SMS.
Let customers chat with Orastra on WhatsApp or SMS.
What Orastra can do
- Answer questions and book appointments over chat
- Send confirmations and reminders
- Hand off to a human when needed
You'll need
- A Twilio account — the same one behind your phone number, if you have one
- To try it right now: nothing else. Twilio's sandbox works in about a minute
- For customers: a WhatsApp sender registered in Twilio (they walk you through it)
Steps
- 1Pick WhatsApp Business above — it runs through Twilio, so there's no Meta app review.
- 2Choose the sandbox to test today, or your own number for customers.
- 3Connect. We check the credentials against Twilio and point the inbound webhook at Orastra for you.
- 4Message the number — Orastra replies, and the thread appears in Conversations.
Supported providers
DocumentsReference documents in your knowledge base.
Let Orastra read documents from cloud storage into its knowledge base.
What Orastra can do
- Ingest PDFs, docs, and sheets as knowledge
- Keep answers in sync as documents change
- Reference source files when it answers
You'll need
- An account with your chosen storage provider
- The folder(s) you want Orastra to learn from
Steps
- 1Pick your storage provider above (Google Drive or OneDrive).
- 2Click Connect and sign in.
- 3Pick the folders Orastra may read.
- 4Approve read-only permissions.
- 5Orastra will index those files into your knowledge base.
Supported providers
Team ChatSend escalations to your team's channel.
Send escalations and daily summaries to your team's chat.
What Orastra can do
- Notify a channel when Orastra escalates to a human
- Post daily activity summaries
- Let staff reply and stay in the loop
You'll need
- A workspace on your chosen provider
- Permission to install apps
- A channel for notifications
Steps
- 1Pick your team chat provider above (Slack or Microsoft Teams).
- 2Click Connect to open that provider's app authorization.
- 3Choose the workspace and channel.
- 4Approve the requested scopes.
- 5Orastra will post a test message to confirm.
Supported providers
Phone & VoiceAnswer and route incoming calls.
Get a phone number your AI employee answers — or connect the one you already use.
What Orastra can do
- Answers every call, takes messages, and books appointments
- Answers day and night, in your own area code
- One number covers calls, texts and WhatsApp
You'll need
- Nothing — we handle the phone provider for you
Steps
- 1Pick your country — add an area code if you want to stay local.
- 2Choose from five available numbers, and confirm.
- 3Call it. Your AI employee picks up.
Supported providers
ZendeskPull open support tickets from Zendesk into your queue.
Let Orastra pull open tickets from Zendesk and reply without you switching tabs.
What Orastra can do
- Read new and open tickets from your Zendesk queue
- Reply to customers directly on the ticket
- Keep ticket status in sync as it works
You'll need
- Your Zendesk subdomain (the part before .zendesk.com)
- A Zendesk agent or admin account to sign in with
Steps
- 1Click Connect — we'll send you to Zendesk to sign in.
- 2Enter your Zendesk subdomain when asked (Zendesk signs you in per-subdomain).
- 3Approve the access request.
- 4Orastra starts pulling open tickets on the next sync.
Supported providers
IntercomPull open conversations from Intercom into your queue.
Let Orastra pull open conversations from Intercom and reply inline.
What Orastra can do
- Read new and open conversations from your Intercom inbox
- Reply to customers directly on the conversation
- Keep conversation state in sync as it works
You'll need
- An Intercom teammate account that can reply to conversations
Steps
- 1Click Connect — we'll send you to Intercom to sign in.
- 2Approve the access request.
- 3Orastra starts pulling open conversations on the next sync.
Supported providers
Calendar & booking
Connect Google Calendar and Orastra books into the diary your team already works from. It checks real availability before offering a time. A booking taken at 2am is on your phone when you wake up.
It is the only calendar option, on purpose. Your assistant and your staff should read one diary. A second one is just a place for appointments to go missing.
Everything it books also shows on the Calendar page. No Google Calendar yet? Bookings still work and live here. Connect it later and your own calendar catches up.
Slots come from the opening hours you set in Settings → Availability, in your own timezone. Until you set them, it takes the customer's preferred time and says it will confirm — it never invents a nine-to-five.
Adding your team
Invite the people who actually run the front desk from Team. Each gets their own sign-in instead of sharing yours — an approval queue only means something if you can tell who approved what.
Everyone shares one workspace — one knowledge base, one set of connected tools, one bill. Connect Gmail once and every colleague and every AI employee you hire later uses it; nobody reconnects anything.
Invites are sent by email and expire. Someone who leaves is removed from the workspace and loses access immediately — the connected accounts stay with the business, not with them.
Permissions & escalation
Every tool is set to one of two modes. Automatic means Orastra acts and tells you after. Approve means it prepares the action and waits for a yes.
A good default: automatic for reading, approve for anything a customer would notice — sending email, confirming a booking, taking payment. Loosen them one at a time, once the transcripts have earned it.
Escalation rules are separate, and always on. Describe what must reach a human in plain words — “anything about a refund”, “severe pain” — and it hands those off instead of trying them.
Reading the dashboard
- Overview
- The week at a glance, plus which connectors are live. Start here.
- Conversations
- Every thread, with the tools used and sources cited inline — this is where you audit its judgment.
- Calendar
- The week grid and the agenda for everything Orastra has booked.
- Tasks
- Follow-ups it created for a human, including anything it escalated.
- Contacts
- People it has spoken to, and what it remembers about them.
- Knowledge
- What it knows. Edit here and the next answer changes immediately.
- Analytics
- Volume, bookings, and escalation rate over time — the escalation trend is the honest quality signal.
- Connections
- Connect, replace, or disconnect the tools it works inside.
Refer & earn
Every workspace has its own referral code, on the Refer & earn page. Send the link to another business and you both get 25% off for 3 months.
Their discount is applied automatically at the payment step — there is nothing for them to type. Yours appears on your next invoice, on its own, once they actually start paying. Trials don't trigger it; a real subscription does.
Two limits, both obvious once stated: you can't use your own code, and a business can only be referred once. If someone you referred later cancels or is refunded, discounts you have already received stay yours.
Troubleshooting
It answers, but says it doesn't know things it should
Its knowledge base is thin, or written as marketing copy. It needs the actual number and the actual policy. Check the Sources panel under any answer to see what it found.
It won't book anything
Booking is a permissioned tool. If manage_calendar is set to approve, Orastra offers times and waits for you rather than confirming. Switch it to automatic in Settings once you trust it.
Customers aren't reaching it at all
A connected channel is what makes Orastra reachable. With none connected it only exists inside your dashboard. Connect email, WhatsApp, or a phone number.
A customer scanned our QR code and got a “not found” page
The chat page is off, or the link was reset after the codes were printed. Check QR code → Settings. A reset kills every code already printed, which is why it asks twice.
It doesn't remember a customer who says they've chatted before
They skipped the sign-in step, or used a different number this time. A guest is only remembered on the device they used. Their earlier chat is still in your inbox.
Its tone is wrong for our business
Tone, reply length, and custom instructions are all settings, not retraining. Custom instructions are the strongest lever — write them as standing rules ("always offer a consult to new patients").
It escalated something it should have handled
That's the safe failure, and it's usually a knowledge gap rather than a bug. Add the missing fact and the same question resolves on its own next time.
Still stuck? Email hello@orastra.tech — include the conversation link and we'll look at the same transcript you are.
Ready to see it for yourself?
Call the demo line and ask it anything — no signup, no card.