ServiceNow Virtual Agent - Auto Launch VA Chat and Trigger Default Live Agent Topic from Custom Port

[Suresh93]

Hello Community,

I hope everyone is doing good!

It's been a while since I last posted in the community.

I'm currently evaluating a Service Portal and Virtual Agent use case and would appreciate insights from the community regarding the feasibility and recommended approach for the following requirement.

We have a custom Service Portal implementation where a list of user requests is displayed as cards. Each card contains a custom Chat icon.

Requirement 

When a user clicks the Chat icon against a specific request: 

1. The Virtual Agent chat window should open on the same tab/page, exactly as it does when the standard Virtual Agent launcher icon is clicked. 
2. A predefined Virtual Agent topic (for example, "Connect to Live Agent") should be automatically triggered. 
3. The triggered topic should immediately transfer the conversation to Live Agent / Agent Chat. 
4. Ideally, we would also like to pass the current request context (Request Number, Sys ID, etc.) to the conversation so the agent can understand which request the user is seeking assistance with. 

Questions

1. Is it possible to programmatically open Virtual Agent from a custom widget and automatically launch a specific topic?
2. Is there any supported API to start a VA topic directly?
3. What is the recommended approach for passing record/request context from a Service Portal widget into a Virtual Agent conversation?
4. Has anyone implemented a similar use case?

Any guidance, best practices, or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

King Regards

Suresh