Reading a conversation and understanding alerts | Civio Civio Assist Knowledge Base     [Skip to content](#main)  [ ![Civio Civio Assist Knowledge Base](/civio-light.svg) ](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-assist-docs.dh1.amazee.io)  [Product documentation](/articles) [Release notes](/releases) [ Support portal ](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-assist-docs.dh1.amazee.io/portal/login)   Toggle navigation      

  [Product documentation](/articles) [Release notes](/releases) [Support portal](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-assist-docs.dh1.amazee.io/portal/login)  

  1. [Home](/) ›
2. [Product documentation](/articles) ›
3. [Conversations](/articles?category=6) ›
4. Reading a conversation and understanding alerts

 Reading a conversation and understanding alerts
===============================================

Updated 1 month ago · 3 min read

 Search     Search  

Opening a conversation shows you exactly what happened, message by message. It is how you review answer quality: what the user asked, which knowledge base pages the reply drew on, and how well it answered the question.

What a thread shows
-------------------

- **User messages**, as they were typed, with any personal details already replaced by placeholders. See [How personal information is protected](/articles/how-personal-information-is-protected).
- **Chatbot replies**, exactly as the user saw them.
- **References** shown with the reply, so you can check the answer against the content it came from. The tag in front of the reference title refers to the type of content.
- **Feedback**, including any like, dislike or written comment left on a reply.
- **Escalations**, marked on the message where a hand-off to your team was raised. See [When the chatbot hands over to your team](/articles/escalation-and-redirects).

![A short conversation in the dashboard: the user's question and the chatbot's reply with its references, with the Thread info panel alongside and no alerts on any message](https://assist.knowledge.civ.io/storage/oJnt6XtFN0BZJbeLWc8LfuRvWm7Bl77i4UKQcJPR.png)

Alerts on messages
------------------

Individual messages can carry an alert. There are three kinds, and carry different meanings.

Warning

Error

Guardrail

What happened

Something minor went wrong, but the chatbot recovered.

A technical fault stopped the chatbot replying.

The chatbot deliberately blocked the reply.

Did the user get a reply?

Yes, a normal-looking reply.

Yes, a generic "something went wrong" message.

Yes, the configured fallback message.

What you should do

Optionally flag to the Civio team.

Report them to the Civio team.

Check whether it should have answered.

What to do about each alert
---------------------------

**Warnings** are mostly informational. The user got a proper answer, so there is rarely anything to act on. A sudden spike is worth mentioning to your Civio representative.

**Errors** mean the reply never arrived: the user saw the generic error message instead of an answer. One in isolation is usually a transient fault. Several in a short period, or a rising trend on the **Total messages with errors** widget, is worth reporting with the date, time and conversation.

**Guardrails** show the chatbot keeping to its scope, and a block is usually correct: the question sat outside what the chatbot is set up to cover. They are still worth a periodic review. If a blocked question turns out to belong in scope, the **Update knowledge base** action on the message proposes it for the knowledge base. See [Safety guardrails](/articles/safety-guardrails) and [Suggesting knowledge straight from a conversation](/articles/manual-context-from-a-conversation).

When you find a bad answer, check the references listed with the reply. Often the chatbot quoted your content correctly and the page itself is out of date, in which case fixing the page is the real solution.

Was this article helpful?
-------------------------

Your feedback helps us prioritise what to rewrite.

      Yes     No  

 [    Back to Conversations ](/articles?category=6) 

 On this page 

### Still need help?

Raise a request in the support portal and track it to resolution.

 [ Submit a support request ](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-assist-docs.dh1.amazee.io/portal/login)

**Need additional help?** Contact our support team at [help@assist-support.civ.io](mailto:support@civ.io)

 © 2026 [Civio](https://civ.io)