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Search Interface

The search interface is a full page, hosted by QAnswer, where people type a question and get an answer drawn from your assistant's data. You share it as a single link — there is nothing to install and no website of your own required.

Open the assistant, go to the Expose tab and select the Search interface card. The page that opens is a five-step guide.

Warning
The Search interface card only appears for assistants whose task type is Search. If you do not see it, change the task type under Task Type on the General tab of the assistant editor.
The search interface guide, showing the UI integration settings, Language and Description steps

Step 1 — UI integration settings

Two checkboxes control how the hosted page is framed:

  • Disable navbar on mobile — hides the top navigation bar for visitors on phones, leaving more room for the search results.
  • Disable branding — removes the QAnswer logo and footer, so the page carries nothing but your assistant.
Note
Both settings are stored on the assistant and are reflected in the shared link as the mobile-navbar and branding parameters — you will see them change in the URL in step 5.

Step 2 — Language

Choose the language the interface itself is displayed in — the labels, buttons and placeholder text. Visitors can still ask questions in any language your assistant understands.

The language list open on the search interface guide
Note
This sets the language of the shared page only. It is unrelated to the language of your own QAnswer account.

Step 3 — Description (optional)

The description tells visitors what this assistant is for and what kind of questions it can answer. It is shown on the public page, and the rich-text editor lets you add links and formatting.

The Description step, with its assistant-level notice and the rich-text editor
Warning
The description belongs to the assistant, not to this one interface. Editing it here also changes what the chat interface, the website chatbot and every other integration show.

Step 4 — Choose your access

Nobody can open the link until you decide who is allowed in:

The Choose your access step, with Open Access and Protected Access side by side
  • Accessible to everyone — anyone with the link can search, with no sign-in. This is the usual choice for a public link.
  • Accessible to everyone that is logged in — the link works, but only after the visitor signs in to QAnswer. Useful for sharing inside a company.
  • Not accessible — the link is dead. Select this to take a published interface offline again.
  • Protected Access — instead of opening the assistant up, generate an API key that callers must supply. Meant for programmatic use rather than a link you send to people.
Warning
Access is an assistant-level setting. Changing it here also changes it for the assistant's chat interface, website chatbot, REST API and every third-party integration.
Note
This step only controls anonymous, public access. To share with named users, teams or organisations, use the Share dialog in the assistant's top bar.

Step 5 — Share

Once access is set, the link appears. Use the copy icon beside it, or the arrow to open it in a new tab.

The Share step showing the generated public link

The link carries your choices from the earlier steps as parameters — the language, and whether the navbar and branding are hidden. Changing a step regenerates it, so copy the link again after you adjust anything.

What visitors see

Opening the link gives a clean search page named after your assistant, with a single question box:

The public search page for an assistant, with its name and a search box
Note
Questions asked here are recorded like any other conversation, so you can review them under Analytics on the assistant's page.
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Chat Interface