Core concepts
Six terms that show up across every doc page. Worth two minutes upfront.
Workspace
Your top-level DMtoLead account. One workspace can hold multiple channels, automations, team members and managed-account clients (for agencies). Plan and billing live at the workspace level.
Automation
A configured AI assistant. An automation has:
- Personality — role, tone, length, emoji usage.
- Knowledge base — your FAQs and business facts (return policy, hours, contact info).
- Linked RAG sources — live data the AI can read (Shopify catalog, Google Calendar, your in-house DB).
- Channels — which connected channels this automation handles.
Most workspaces start with one automation that handles every channel. Larger teams sometimes split automations by language, brand or channel — e.g. one English support automation and one Turkish.
Channel
A connected messaging platform. Today: Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, your own web chat widget. Each channel speaks to DMtoLead via webhooks; you don't manage the wiring.
One automation can run on many channels. The AI's personality, knowledge and connected data stay the same across all of them.
Agent
A human team member with dashboard access. Agents can read conversations, take over from the AI mid-thread (manual reply), and (depending on role) edit automations. Plan tier sets the agent count.
Credit
One automated reply DMtoLead sends on your behalf — whether it's an AI reply, a RAG-augmented reply, an Instagram comment auto-engage or a keyword auto-reply. 1 credit = 1 reply.
Incoming customer messages are free. Replies typed manually by your team are free. Credits live at the workspace level and reset monthly on your plan's renewal date. See pricing & credits for plan allowances and how top-ups work.
RAG source
A live data source the AI consults while replying. "RAG" stands for retrieval-augmented generation — the AI doesn't memorise your catalog, it queries it in real time.
DMtoLead supports 12+ RAG source types out of the box: Shopify, Ikas, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zendesk, Calendly, Twilio, plus an in-house database (products, bookings, appointments, tickets) and special-purpose adapters (reward codes, PLC demo for hardware). See all data sources for the full list.