The Virtual Agent Designer Topics page lists all objects in your instance. These objects include topics, topic blocks, custom controls, setup topics, and small talk topics.

Figure 1. Topics page
The Virtual Agent Designer Topics page displays the available topics, topic blocks, and custom controls, as well as options for creating and managing topics.
Figure 2. Topic cards

Each topic is represented by a card on the topic page. A description of the topic (from the Properties tab) appears when you hover on the title, and all categories are shown when you hover on the list of tags. Options to promote or demote (if it uses LLM topic discovery) or delete the topic appears when you hover on the Topic actions (Topic actions icon.) icon. For more information, see Promote or demote Virtual Agent LLM topics

Hover on the name of a topic card to read its description from the Properties tab. Hover on the category tags of a topic card to see all categories associated with the topic. Promote LLM topic screenshot.
Table 1. Filters and options in the Topics page
Field Description
Migrate Topics to LLM Button that opens the NLU to LLM topic migration workflow. For more information, see LLM topic migration.
Localization Insights Button that opens the Localization Insights dashboard. It shows reports of topics with their translation statuses. For more information, see Localization Insights dashboard.
See Topic Recommendations Button that opens Topic Recommendations (if installed). Review recommendations and manage jobs. For more information, see Using Virtual Agent Topic Recommendations.
LLM Assistant Filter that lets you view objects associated with a large language model (LLM) assistant. If a topic block or custom control isn’t associated with an LLM assistant, but is called by a topic that's associated with an LLM assistant, those objects appear in this filtered LLM assistant view. Nested topic blocks or custom controls don’t appear in the filtered view unless they’re directly associated with an LLM assistant. If you select an LLM Assistant, the Manage languages and Manage NLU/keyword test cases options disappear from the Topics page.

This option is only visible when Now Assist in Virtual Agent is installed. For more information, see Configuring Now Assist in Virtual Agent.

Tip: Either a Settings or Manage option appears next to the LLM Assistant filter. Settings appears if there is a specific LLM assistant selected in the LLM Assistant filter and Manage appears if no assistant is selected in the filter. Use this option to quickly navigate to the Conversational Interfaces guided setup area to review or update your LLM assistants.
Manage languages Button that opens the Manage languages page. You can view the localization status of an NLU model and request translations for the model and related topics.

This field is available only when NLU discovery is enabled on the instance.
Manage NLU/keyword test cases Button that opens the Manage test cases page, where you can manage automated testing for Virtual Agent topics. For more information, see Automated testing for Virtual Agent topics that use NLU topic discovery.
Test Active Topics

Button that opens the chat test window, which runs active topics in the Virtual Agent web client. This option becomes a drop-down menu only when Now Assist for Virtual Agent is installed. The drop-down menu options specify which types of topics you want to test:

  • Test NLU/keyword topics
  • Test LLM topics
    Note: Topics must be associated with the Now Assist in Virtual Agent LLM assistant prior to testing from the Topics page. For more information about this assistant, see LLM assistants.

Use this feature to test and verify that your active topics work as intended.
Search by topic name Option for finding a topic that matches the name or search string that you enter.
Explore additional topics Link that opens the All prebuilt topics page, which shows prebuilt topics that are available when you activate their dependent spokes or plug-ins. For more information, see Virtual Agent Designer All pre-built topics page.
Model Type

Filter that displays either NLU/Keyword or large language model (LLM) topics. If this option is cleared, both topic types are displayed.

This option is only visible when Now Assist in Virtual Agent is installed. For more information, see Configuring Now Assist in Virtual Agent.
Topic Type

Filter for displaying Virtual Agent objects:

  • Topics: Lists only topics (and not blocks or custom controls), including prebuilt topics.
  • Topic Blocks: Lists prebuilt and custom topic blocks.
  • Setup Topics: Lists topics that are basic conversational elements, such as the conversation greeting or closing.
  • Small Talk Topics: Lists topics that serve as casual conversations between the bot and end users, where the bot answers questions generally not related to the original task or issue.
  • Custom Controls: Lists custom controls that represent custom components used in a conversation.
By default, the Topics page lists all active (published) and inactive (in development) objects, unless you use filters to list only certain object types.
Category

Filter that displays a list of topics belonging to a category that you specify. A category is a label that identifies a group of objects, such as setup topics or prebuilt topics for a particular business application.

You can also define your own custom categories. For details, see Create or modify custom categories.
Status

Filter that displays a list of objects by their state:

  • Active: Display only published objects
  • Inactive: Display only objects in development
NLU Language

Filter that displays only if you're using multi-language NLU models. Lists Natural Language Understanding (NLU)-enabled topics by the language that you select.

Enable the languages for the NLU service in NLU settings.

This field is available only when NLU discovery is enabled on the instance.
Channel

If other channels are configured for the instance, filter that lists topics by the channel (chat client) that you select. The default channels for Virtual Agent are the web chat client and the messaging integrations for Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workplace, and Facebook Messenger. Your instance may have other channels, such as SMS that were created using custom chat integrations.
Created by me Option that, when enabled, displays only the topics that you created.
Sort by

Filter that displays topics by the sort filter that you select:

  • Name: Specified topic or object.
  • Updated time: Recently updated topics.
  • Promoted Topics: Topics promoted by an LLM assistant. This sort filter option is only available if an LLM assistant is selected in the LLM Assistant filter.
+ Create Option that opens the Properties page to create a topic or topic element and define the topic properties.
Topic actions (Topic actions icon.)

Button that opens a drop-down menu with the following options:

  • Promote topic: Adds a Promoted flag to the topic when you select an LLM Assistant to associate with the topic. The option is deactivated and a tool tip appears when you try to promote any of the following:
    • Setup topics
    • Topic blocks
    • Small talk topics
    • Unpublished topics
    • Topics with no LLM Assistant selected
    • Saved but unpublished topics with an LLM Assistant associated
    • Any NLU/Keyword topics
      Note: You can promote NLU topics in Conversational Interfaces settings, under Virtual Agent Custom Greetings and Setup. for more information, see Configure a Virtual Agent chat experience
  • Demote topic: Replaces the Promote option in a promoted topic, to remove the Promoted flag.
  • Delete topic: Opens a confirmation dialog box to delete the topic.

For more information, see Promote or demote Virtual Agent LLM topics and Delete a Virtual Agent topic.