Setting Up Your Replyk Agent: A Practical Onboarding Guide

What onboarding actually looks like

The single most common question from new Replyk users is: how long does setup take? The honest answer is that a basic, production-ready Agent can be configured in a few hours. A fully optimized setup — with a complete product catalog, social proof images, offer configurations, and trained negotiation floors — takes a day or two of focused work. Neither is as daunting as it sounds.

The setup process follows a clear sequence: connect your WhatsApp Business account, build your product catalog, choose your Agent's personality, configure any pricing rules or offers, test in the Playground, and go live. Each step is independent and reversible — you can adjust your catalog or Agent settings at any time without restarting.

Step 1: Connecting your WhatsApp Business account

Replyk connects to WhatsApp through the official WhatsApp Business Platform API. This requires a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) verified through Meta's Business Manager. If you already have a WABA, connection is straightforward — you authorize Replyk to act on behalf of your number in the Meta developer portal, and the link is established within minutes.

If you do not yet have a verified WABA, the process takes two to five business days depending on Meta's review speed. Replyk's onboarding documentation covers the Meta verification steps in detail. It is worth completing this step before you begin catalog setup, so both can be ready at the same time.

Step 2: Building your product catalog

The product catalog is the Agent's source of truth. Every product the Agent can mention, recommend, or create an order for must be in the catalog. Each entry includes: product name, description, price, any variants (size, color, etc.), images, and optional negotiation configuration (minimum price floor, whether discounts are permitted).

For businesses with large catalogs, the practical approach is incremental: add your best sellers first, go live, and grow the catalog as conversations reveal what customers ask for — every catalog change takes effect immediately, with no retraining step. Social proof images (customer photos, unboxing video stills) are uploaded per product and the Agent will send them when appropriate during the conversation.

• Product name, description, and price (required)
• Variant configurations: color, size, material, or any custom attribute
• Minimum negotiable price per product (optional, for negotiable items)
• Product images: main image plus a gallery of up to 20 additional images
• Social proof: customer photos and testimonials (up to 50 entries per product)
• Bundle and offer configurations: cross-sell rules and bundle pricing

Step 3: Choosing your Agent's personality

Replyk offers nine Agent personalities, each with a distinct communication style. Sara and Ahmed work well for most COD businesses starting out — they are balanced, trustworthy, and fluent in Darija. If your brand has a more casual, youth-oriented voice, Karim or Omar might be a better fit. Fatima and Nadia work particularly well for fashion and beauty brands where a warm, consultative approach drives better conversions.

You can switch personalities at any time, and testing different personalities in the Playground before going live is recommended. The personality affects tone, phrasing, and how the Agent handles objections — it does not affect the Agent's access to your catalog, pricing rules, or order-handling capabilities. All personalities are equally capable; the choice is purely about communication fit with your customer base.

Testing with the AI Playground

Before pointing real customer traffic at your Agent, the AI Playground lets you have a complete, real conversation with it in a sandboxed environment. You can ask about products, negotiate prices, create orders, and test edge cases — and at every step, the Playground shows you what the Agent was thinking: which tools it called, what data it retrieved, and why it responded the way it did.

This transparency is intentional. It lets you catch catalog gaps (products the Agent cannot find because they are misconfigured), pricing errors (floor prices set incorrectly), and tone mismatches (the Agent responding in a language or style that does not match your brand). Fixing these issues before going live is far easier than diagnosing them in live customer conversations.

Going live: what to expect in the first 24 hours

When you flip the Agent from Playground to production, it begins handling real inbound messages from your connected WhatsApp number. In the first few hours, monitor the conversation feed actively — not to intervene, but to observe. You will see which customer questions catch the Agent off-guard, which products generate the most inbound interest, and where the confirmation flow has friction.

The most common first-day adjustments are catalog additions (customers asking about products not yet in the system) and offer corrections (bundle configurations that need tuning). Both are easy to fix from the dashboard and take effect immediately in subsequent conversations. By the end of the first 24 hours, most businesses have their first Agent-confirmed orders — and a clear picture of what to optimize next.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to set up Replyk? Most businesses connect WhatsApp, build a starter catalog, and run their first test conversation in well under a day.

Do I need technical skills to set up Replyk? No — setup is guided through the dashboard, from WhatsApp connection to catalog and Agent personality.

Can I test the Agent before going live? Yes — the AI Playground lets you hold real conversations with your Agent before any customer reaches it.