Not sure how Lyro will answer your customers? You don't have to find out live. Tidio gives you a safe test environment where you play the customer: ask Lyro (the AI agent) the questions your visitors usually ask, see its answers, check which knowledge it used, and fix anything that's missing - all before Lyro talks to a single real customer.

And the best part: test questions in the Playground don't count toward Lyro's conversations limit, so feel free to test as much as you like.

In this article, you'll learn:

Silent walkthrough. Ask an example question in the Playground and review its sources, send a test email Lyro can't answer, create the missing Q&A from it, resend the email to get Lyro's reply, and open Test Lyro from Data sources.

Testing Lyro in the Playground

Head over to the Lyro AI Agent section, and click on Playground in the menu on the left. You'll land on the Live chat tab:

Lyro AI Agent > Playground on the Live chat tab: the test chat widget on the left with the automatic "Hi" message and Lyro's greeting, and on the right the "Test Lyro with your knowledge" heading with the Reset test link, the description, several example question buttons and the Show other link below them

On the left, you'll see a test version of your chat widget. Tidio starts the conversation for you with a short greeting in Lyro's default language (for example, "Hi"), so Lyro is ready to answer right away. Simply type a question in the widget, just like a visitor would.

No ideas what to ask? On the right, under Test Lyro with your knowledge, you'll find example questions taken from your knowledge. Click on any of them to send it to Lyro, or click on Show other for a new set of examples.

When you'd like to start over with a fresh conversation, hit Reset test in the top-right of the questions panel.

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Please note: Lyro needs knowledge before you can test it. If you haven't added any yet, the Playground will say Lyro needs knowledge to answer customer questions - click on Add knowledge to Lyro to add your first data sources. If you have Q&As but none of them is used by Lyro, you'll see Adjust Q&A status to use playground instead, with the Change Q&A status and Add knowledge buttons.

Testing Lyro's email replies

Lyro can answer your customers' emails too, and you can test that as well. Click on the Email tab at the top of the Playground (it's marked beta):

Lyro AI Agent > Playground on the Email tab (with the beta badge): the empty test thread with the "Test Lyro with your knowledge" heading and its description in the middle, the email composer at the bottom with To: Lyro, the "Enter a ticket message..." placeholder and the Send button, and the example questions on the right

Write an email to Lyro in the composer at the bottom (or click on one of the example questions on the right), and hit Send. After a moment, you'll see Lyro's reply in the thread, just as your customer would get it by email.

Not every email gets an answer, and that's on purpose. Lyro only replies when it finds a clear question it can solve. If it doesn't, the Playground tells you why, and that the email would be assigned to a human agent. In the same way, if Lyro doesn't have the knowledge to answer, you'll see Add missing answer (more on that below). To try another question, click on Reset test.

Since Lyro also answers customers' replies in the same email thread, you can test that too: once Lyro has replied, simply write a follow-up email in the composer and hit Send again.

The Email tab of the Playground with a short thread: your test email ("You"), Lyro's reply with the Review button below it, and the composer open below the thread for a follow-up email
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Please note: you can test emails even if Lyro doesn't answer your emails yet. In that case, the Email tab shows a message that Lyro for Emails isn't activated, with a Set up Lyro for Emails link that takes you to Lyro's email settings. The Email tab is in beta, so the way it looks may still change.

Seeing which sources Lyro used

Got an answer you didn't expect? Every test answer lets you look behind the scenes. In the live chat test widget, use the option to review sources under Lyro's answer; on the Email tab, click on the Review button below Lyro's reply. The Review sources panel will open:

The Review sources panel open on the right of the Playground after a test answer, showing the Guidances section with one guidance, the Sources section with a Q&A marked Manually added and its date, the Edit Q&A and Delete options, and an Actions block below

Depending on the answer, the panel lists:

  • Guidances - the Guidance Lyro followed when writing the answer
  • Sources - the knowledge it used: your Q&As (Manually added), Website pages, PDF files and other data sources, with the date each one was added or Updated
  • Products - the products Lyro recommended, if it recommended any
  • Actions - the Actions Lyro ran, with their logs; click on Edit Action to open the Action in a new tab and change it

If a source is wrong or out of date, you can fix it on the spot: click on Edit Q&A to change a Q&A, or Delete to remove the source. Then reset the test and ask again to see the difference.

That's exactly the same panel your agents see in the Inbox when they click on Review under Lyro's messages in real conversations and email tickets, so you can keep improving Lyro after it goes live, too.

Adding an answer Lyro didn't know

When you ask Lyro something it can't find in your knowledge, you can teach it right away. In the live chat test widget, Lyro will offer you the option to add an answer; on the Email tab, you'll see the Add missing answer box with the Add answer button:

The Email tab of the Playground after a test email Lyro couldn't answer: "Lyro couldn't reply to this email. It couldn't find the answer in your added knowledge or behavior setup, so the email would go to your team." with the Create answer link

Click on it, and the Create a new Q&A window will open, with your test question already filled in the Question field. Type in the answer, and hit Create Q&A:

The Create a new Q&A window with the Question field filled in with the test question ("Do you ship to Canada?"), an answer typed in the answer editor below, the "How to use Q&A with Lyro" link at the bottom-left and the Create Q&A button

That's it! The new Q&A is added to Lyro's data sources, and Lyro will use it the next time someone asks a similar question.

Testing Lyro from any Lyro screen

You don't have to go back to the Playground every time you change something. Many screens of the Lyro AI Agent section (like the Hub, Data sources, Guidance, Procedures and Actions & MCPs) have a Test Lyro button in the top-right. On the Products screen, once your products are imported, it's called Test product answers:

The Lyro AI Agent > Data sources screen with the Test Lyro button in the top-right highlighted

Click on it, and the Test Lyro panel will slide in, with the test widget on the left. On the right, you'll see the sources of any answer you open in the widget. Use the Reset button at the top to start a new test conversation:

The Test Lyro panel open over the Data sources screen: the test widget on the left with a short conversation, the Review sources section on the right, and the Reset button and close icon at the top
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Please note: the Test Lyro panel tests live chat only - to test email replies, use the Email tab in the Playground. The button is greyed out until you've added knowledge in the Data sources tab.

Testing changes before you save them

When you're writing Guidance, a Procedure, an Action or a Proactive role, you can test it right there in the editor - before you save it or switch it on. Your test uses the version you're working on, so your customers won't see anything until you're happy with it.

  • Guidance and Tone of voice - the editor has a Preview with a test widget on the right. After you change the instructions (or pick another tone), click on Reset above the preview to test the new version.
  • Procedures - fill in the Name, When to use and Instructions fields, and click on Test it out at the bottom. A test widget will open next to the form.
  • Actions - click on Test it out at the bottom of the Action editor. The Test Lyro panel opens, and you can chat with Lyro and give it the details it asks for. Open the sources of Lyro's answer to see the Action's log, with the API request and response.
  • Proactive roles - fill in the Trigger, First message and Instructions, and click on Test it out. The test widget opens with your role's first message, so you can reply to it like a visitor would.
A Procedure in the editor with the Name, When to use and Instructions fields filled in, and the test widget open on the right after clicking Test it out, with a short conversation that follows the Procedure

In each of these tests, you can open Lyro's sources and add missing answers, just like in the Playground. Once everything works the way you want, save your changes and switch them on.

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Please note: an Action test is a real API call. If your Action changes something in another system (for example, updates an order), it will really change it - so test Actions on test data, like a test order or a test store.

Further reading