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WizeHawk

ANSWERHAWK DOCUMENTATION · VERSION 0.9.11

AnswerHawk: Complete Setup & Support Guide

Connect your mailbox, prepare approved answers, test AI drafts, and keep control of customer replies.

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Before you start

Scope: this guide is based on the AnswerHawk 0.9.11 development package. Screen labels and limits below were checked against that package. Public release availability and download links are shown on the AnswerHawk product page; this guide is not an announcement of WordPress.org approval.

You need WordPress 7.0 or newer, PHP 8.0 or newer, administrator access, and a support mailbox that permits IMAP and authenticated SMTP connections. Your host must allow outbound connections to the mail servers. DOCX imports also require the PHP Zip extension.

Keep a current backup of the site and database before installation or upgrades. For initial testing, use a dedicated test mailbox or a controlled support inbox. Do not run two automatic responders against the same mailbox.

An AI provider is needed for new AI-generated drafts. Mailbox hosting, WordPress hosting, an optional Pro license, and provider usage are separate considerations. A free plugin does not mean unlimited free AI usage; check your provider’s billing and usage controls before enabling processing.

1. Install and orient yourself

When an official package is available, open Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin, select the ZIP, install it, and activate it. Use only the official release or an authorized test package. Do not assume the development package is the public Free download.

Open AnswerHawk in the WordPress sidebar. A fresh installation shows Get AnswerHawk ready. The main working screens are Support Inbox, Settings, AI Connector, and Answer Library.

New installations start with an empty Answer Library. There are no preloaded answers for your business. Configure mail first, add reviewed knowledge, then test in Review mode before considering automatic replies.

System Health is conditional: it appears when the plugin detects something that needs attention. Mail warnings begin after setup has been attempted. A clean dashboard is not, by itself, proof that a message has reached a customer.

2. Configure and test outgoing mail

Open AnswerHawk → Settings. Under Outgoing SMTP, enter Support name and Support email as customers should see them. Use an address that your mailbox provider authorizes you to send from.

Copy SMTP host, SMTP port, Encryption, Authentication, SMTP username, and SMTP password from the mailbox provider’s secure connection settings. Use the individual mailbox credentials, never the master hosting or cPanel login. The username is often the full email address, but the provider’s values are authoritative.

Choose your Support timezone and leave Timeout unchanged unless you are troubleshooting a specific connection problem. Click Save Mail Settings before testing.

Under Test AnswerHawk SMTP, enter a separate address you control in Send test to and click Send Test Email. Confirm receipt, check Spam if necessary, and inspect the visible sender address. A successful send response is not a guarantee of inbox delivery.

AnswerHawk uses its own SMTP connection; its test does not use wp_mail() or another WordPress SMTP plugin. Fixing a different SMTP plugin will not necessarily fix AnswerHawk. If delivery fails, retain the exact error and ask the mail provider to verify the host, port, authentication, and domain mail configuration.

3. Configure incoming mail and synchronization

In the same Settings screen, complete Incoming IMAP: IMAP host, IMAP port, Encryption, IMAP username, and Folder. Use the mailbox provider’s values; confirm that the selected folder is where new support mail arrives.

The IMAP password field can reuse the SMTP password when no separate IMAP password has been stored. When it says a password is already saved, leaving it blank preserves that password. Enter a new value only when you intend to replace it.

Enable automatic inbox sync and choose Check inbox: every 5, 15, or 30 minutes, or every hour. Keep the Inbox noise filter enabled initially. Save Mail Settings, then click Test Inbox Connection.

Send a realistic support question from a different mailbox. Click Sync Inbox Now and check Support Inbox. The manual sync button requires inbound sync to be enabled. Confirm the customer address and subject, not just the ticket count.

Do not use only “Test” as the subject and body for this workflow test. Obvious tests, bounces, and automated non-support messages may be ignored. Inspect the Ignored tab before assuming mail has disappeared.

Incoming sync and AI processing are separate scheduled jobs. The configured interval is a schedule, not a delivery-time guarantee. If manual sync works but automatic sync does not, check System Health and ask your host to check WordPress scheduled-task execution.

4. Add your first approved answer

Open AnswerHawk → Answer Library. Enable Use Answer Library before AI and click Save. Expand Add an answer manually.

Fill in Customer question and Answer. Put alternative phrasings in Other ways customers may ask it, one variation per line. Set Product / topic when the answer is product-specific; choose All plans, Free, or Pro; add a useful Category.

Write only information you have verified. Remove customer names, greetings, order numbers, credentials, and one-off exceptions. The stored answer should describe a reusable rule or procedure. Click Add to Answer Library.

Worked example: create a question such as “Where can I find the setup instructions?” and answer it with the actual documentation link for your product. Add “How do I get started?” as a variation only if the same answer genuinely fits. Test a different phrasing and check that the suggested reply points to the correct source.

Manually entered and reviewed imported answers are treated as human-approved knowledge. That matters when Pro automation is enabled later: an incorrect entry can become an incorrect customer reply. Free supports up to 25 stored Answer Library entries; Pro removes that limit.

5. Import documentation and review the results

Within Answer Library, choose or drag in HTML, TXT, Markdown, or DOCX files, up to 5 MB each. Multiple files can be scanned together. Set product/topic, plan, and category, then click Scan Selected Files.

For a public page, expand Or import from a documentation web page, enter its URL, set the scope, and click Scan Web Page. Version 0.9.11 scans one web page at a time; this is not an automatic whole-site crawler or ongoing documentation synchronization service.

Extraction looks for structured question-and-answer material, such as FAQ markup, question headings, FAQ accordions, or explicit Question: / Answer: blocks. A long prose document may produce few or no candidates. Rewrite key help topics into clear questions and answers when necessary.

Review the Import preview. Select only correct, complete, current answers and use the import action. Check their product and plan scope before trusting them. Existing manually entered or human-approved answers are not silently overwritten by documentation imports.

Extraction uses no AI calls. That does not make later AI drafting free. Uploaded files are scanned rather than added to the Media Library, but selected answers and their source information are stored in AnswerHawk. DOCX failures may indicate that PHP Zip is unavailable.

6. Configure AI and stay in Review mode

Open AnswerHawk → AI Connector. Use Open WordPress Connectors to configure a supported provider in Settings → Connectors. Provider credentials and model selection are managed there, not in AnswerHawk’s mail settings.

Return to AI Connector and click Test AI Connection. Treat a provider test as potentially billable usage. If the client is not ready, resolve provider configuration, account access, or provider errors before continuing.

Choose Review — create drafts, never send. Enable server-side AI support processing, choose Process queue every 5 or 15 minutes, and click Save AI Support Settings.

Add concise, verified policies or known issues to Extra support knowledge if needed. Do not put passwords or customer secrets there. The drafting engine also searches published pages and posts on the site for relevant documentation, so keep those sources accurate and remove contradictory information.

Use Process Waiting Tickets Now for a controlled check. A ticket may receive an Approved answer found suggestion from the local library, an AI draft, or an escalation. A displayed confidence percentage is not a guarantee of correctness. Review the actual wording and applicable product/plan before sending.

The engine runs on the WordPress server; your laptop and ChatGPT do not need to remain open. Your site, mailbox service, scheduled tasks, and configured provider still need to be working.

7. Complete an end-to-end acceptance test

First, add one verified library answer and send a matching question from your test customer address. Sync the inbox, process waiting tickets, open the conversation, and confirm that the proposed answer is relevant. Review mode must not send it automatically.

Edit the reply if necessary and click Send Reply. Confirm that the customer mailbox receives it from the intended support address. Send a follow-up from that mailbox and verify that conversation handling behaves as expected.

Next, send a question with no documented answer. The safe outcome is human review or escalation, not an invented policy, feature, refund promise, or troubleshooting step.

Finally, test a clearly sensitive example using fictional details only—for example, a refund request or possible data-loss report. Confirm that it stays out of automatic sending. Do not use actual secrets, payment details, or private customer data in test messages.

Check Ignored messages and repeat sync to look for unexpected filtering or duplicates. Keep automatic sending off until incoming mail, manual replies, knowledge matching, and escalation have all been checked.

8. Handle tickets and maintain the library

Use Support Inbox to review conversations and statuses. Open the ticket, read the history and any internal context, verify the draft, and use Send Reply when ready. Use Ticket status → Update Status to set the appropriate state.

In Ignored, Restore selected to Waiting can return mistakenly filtered tickets to the working queue. Review those messages regularly during early use. A noise filter is a convenience, not a substitute for checking customer mail.

With Pro, eligible human-approved replies can become reusable knowledge automatically. Read the post-send notice to see whether learning occurred or was excluded. Ordinary manually resolved escalations can qualify; sensitive or risky cases remain excluded.

Review knowledge after product changes, policy updates, renamed settings, or incorrect matches. Keep plan-specific answers separate and avoid storing conflicting instructions. Link recurring questions to better public documentation.

Ticket deletion is permanent within the plugin. Individual and bulk deletion actions should be used only after checking the selection and your retention needs. Deleted tickets have re-import protection; re-syncing the mailbox is not a reliable undo operation.

9. Understand Free, Pro, and automation boundaries

Free includes the support inbox and manual tools, IMAP/SMTP, local noise filtering, manual and documentation-based knowledge entry, Review-mode drafting, and up to 25 Answer Library entries.

Pro adds an unlimited Answer Library, automatic learning from eligible approved replies, Trusted mode, Autopilot mode, and the advanced Remote Connector. Check the product page for finalized availability and pricing.

Trusted allows eligible high-confidence documented answers to be sent automatically. Autopilot allows broader routine handling while enforcing escalation rules. Neither means “answer every email.” Start in Review and inspect representative outcomes before enabling either.

Hard escalation rules cover refunds and chargebacks, legal/security/privacy issues, possible data loss, unsupported attachments or screenshots, unverified bugs, and promises the system cannot verify. Human review remains necessary; automated classification is not a guarantee that every risk will be recognized.

To pause automated sending, return Operating mode to Review and save. To stop automatic support processing altogether, disable server-side AI support processing and save. Incoming mailbox sync has its own switch in Settings.

10. Optional contact-form relay

Direct customer email is the simplest first setup. Establish that path before testing form notifications.

Version 0.9.11 contains a specific relay parser for messages whose subject begins with [WH-FORM]. It uses a valid customer Reply-To address and recognizes labels including Your Name, Email Address, What is this about?, Your Plan, Subject, WordPress Version, Plugin Version, How can we help?, and Privacy consent.

This is not verified universal compatibility with every form plugin. Send a real test submission from an address you control and inspect the resulting customer identity, message body, product context, and reply destination before enabling automation.

If your form uses different labels or formatting, ask for integration guidance. Do not assume that setting Reply-To alone makes every notification format safe for automatic processing.

11. Data handling, backups, and advanced access

Tickets, settings, and the Answer Library are stored in your WordPress database. Mail flows through your mailbox provider. AI drafting can send customer message content and relevant support context to your configured provider; local storage does not mean all processing stays local.

Review your provider’s data handling and your own customer disclosures before enabling AI. Limit administrator access and protect database backups because they may contain support conversations and configuration secrets.

Deleting the plugin in version 0.9.11 intentionally preserves tickets, settings, stored credentials, and Answer Library data. Deactivation or uninstall is not a complete data-erasure procedure. If retiring the system, plan data removal and credential revocation separately.

Remote Connector is an optional Pro feature under AI Connector → Advanced. Leave it unused unless you have a specific external client to connect. Tokens grant access to customer information; write permission can also permit replies, status changes, and inbox synchronization.

Treat connector tokens like passwords, give the minimum access required, and revoke unused tokens. Free or expired-Pro access leaves stored tokens inactive rather than automatically deleting them. Never paste a token into a public support message.

Troubleshooting checklist

SMTP connects but no message arrives: check the destination, Spam folder, provider delivery logs, and sender authorization. Confirm AnswerHawk’s own SMTP values; another SMTP plugin’s success is not evidence for this connection.

IMAP test fails: verify the provider’s host, encryption, port, full username if required, password, and folder. Ask the host whether outbound mail connections are blocked. Do not disable transport security just to hide an error.

Mail exists in webmail but no ticket appears: check the selected folder, whether inbound sync is enabled, the Last check message, and Ignored. Try a new realistic question rather than repeated “Test” messages. Previously deleted mail may be excluded by re-import protection.

Manual actions work but background work stalls: inspect System Health and the last inbox/AI run times. Have the host check scheduled tasks. Faster interval settings do not repair a scheduler that is not executing.

No draft appears: check that processing is enabled, the provider test passes, the ticket is eligible and waiting, and there is usable source knowledge. Escalation can be intentional. Inspect the error rather than repeatedly triggering potentially billable requests.

The library chooses the wrong answer: stop automated sending, inspect wording variations and product/plan scope, and correct the entry. Similar words are not proof that two customer problems have the same solution.

Documentation finds no answers: use supported file types and clear Q&A structure. For URLs, confirm public access; for DOCX, check PHP Zip. Review scan errors. The importer does not support PDF in this version.

Pro controls remain unavailable: confirm the active build and license/account state. A license that is stored but not unlocking Pro should be investigated through the licensing/support flow. Do not try to bypass the gates.

Need help?

Include your AnswerHawk version, WordPress and PHP versions, Free/Pro status, affected screen, exact error, time of failure, and whether the equivalent manual action works. Describe the expected result and the steps that reproduce the issue.

Redact passwords, API keys, tokens, customer addresses, private message bodies, and payment details from screenshots or logs. Do not send credentials.

Free support is documentation plus best-effort email help with no guaranteed response time. Pro receives priority support for installation, configuration, and troubleshooting. Contact WizeHawk support or browse the related AnswerHawk guides.

View AnswerHawk features and release information →

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