--- schema_version: "1" id: 0766a49862ac3eb0cc14497ff88b431bb883bc82cc100bac06c21ec35fd67a4c title: Set Up Service Assistant collection: admin version: current locale: en-us portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/service/264-0-0/sp_start_setup.md canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_start_setup.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 source_site: help.salesforce.com content_type: documentation content_hash: 934e03ece4bcbe174cda53e3746e3f0b511e1a752ff0b0e56555b1e0acf29325 description: Complete the general Service Assistant setup for Case, Messaging, and Voice. products: - Service Cloud - Service Intelligence release: "264" --- # Set Up Service Assistant Complete the general Service Assistant setup for Case, Messaging, and Voice. ### Required Editions
View supported editions.
![Service Assistant setup overview graphic](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-service-support_intelligence-264-0-0-production-enus/dcd06a7b-b5ab-448b-a767-4e2e90481508/support_intelligence/images/service_planner/sp_setup_graphic\(2\).png) These steps walk you through the core service plan configuration for Service Assistant for Case, Messaging, and Voice. You create your agent, add subagents and actions, turn on Service Assistant for each object, and confirm that you can generate service plans. ![Important](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-service-support_intelligence-264-0-0-production-enus/dcd06a7b-b5ab-448b-a767-4e2e90481508/images/icon_important.png) Important You can create and configure a Service Assistant agent only in the legacy Agentforce Builder. If you can't access the legacy builder, go to the new Agentforce Builder and select Agentforce Service Assistant. You're automatically routed to the legacy builder. - [Complete General Setup](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_basics.htm&language=en_US) guides you through turning on all required Agentforce features, creating your Service Assistant agent, and configuring your agent metadata, including subagents and actions. Subagents are required, but actions are optional. If you don't plan to automate plan tasks now, you can skip the Set Up Actions step and add actions later. If you already set up a data library of the Knowledge data type, you can add it to your agent. We provide separate setup steps for it because service plans require extra permissions and testing. See [Set Up Knowledge Grounding](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_ka_setup.htm&language=en_US) to test and confirm your configuration. - [Set Up Service Assistant for Case](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_case.htm&language=en_US) guides you through Case-specific setup. Because Case supports both guidance plans and dynamic plans, you must choose which plan type to turn on. Only one plan type can be turned on at a time. You set your eligibility criteria, determine which case fields and objects to ground on through Service AI Grounding, assign the required permissions, and add the component to the case record page. - [Set Up Service Assistant for Messaging](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_msg.htm&language=en_US) guides you through the Messaging-specific tasks. Messaging supports dynamic plans only. You set your eligibility criteria and grant user access to the eligibility flows through a custom permission set, assign the required messaging permissions, turn on Service Assistant for Messaging Session, and add the component to the record page. Service Assistant grounds on the entire transcript automatically, so unlike Case, there's no record grounding configuration to set. Optionally, you can [Set Up Service Replies for Service Assistant](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_sr_setup.htm&language=en_US&type=5). - [Set Up Service Assistant for Voice](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_vc.htm&language=en_US) guides you through the Voice-specific tasks. Voice supports dynamic plans only. Before you begin, confirm that you set up Agentforce Contact Center Voice or Partner Contact Center Voice with call transcription. You set your eligibility criteria and grant user access to the eligibility flow through a custom permission set, assign the required Voice Call permissions, turn on Service Assistant for Voice, and add the component to the record page. Like Messaging, Service Assistant grounds on the entire transcript automatically, so there's no record grounding configuration to set. - [Set Up Knowledge Grounding](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_ka_setup.htm&language=en_US&type=5) guides you through a sample data library setup that follows our guidelines and best practices, and provides steps for confirming that all users have the correct permissions. We also provide details on how to test and validate knowledge grounding for both guidance and dynamic plans. - [Set Up Context Variables](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_cv.htm&type=5&language=en_US) provides steps for setting up the context variables for Service Assistant. - [Extend Service Assistant](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_extend_ov.htm&language=en_US) covers the optional features you can add after core setup, like multiple agents and Service Assistant capabilities. Set up these features after you complete the general setup for each object and confirm that you can generate service plans. ## Planning Your Use Cases Before you begin setup, identify two or three issue types to configure and test first. Well-defined use cases give every setup decision a clear purpose. For example, you build a subagent for a specific issue type, such as Transaction Declined, not a generic placeholder. This keeps your configuration focused and makes it easier to confirm that your setup works as expected. Avoid subagents that describe what Service Assistant already does. A subagent named Case Resolution Assistance or Resolve the Issue prevents Service Assistant from accurately categorizing records. Select your setup and test scenarios around these criteria. - **Common issues**. Choose issue types that your team handles frequently and that have well-documented procedures and knowledge articles with clear, step-by-step resolution processes. These processes are easier to turn into subagents and instructions, and they improve knowledge grounding performance. For best practices on creating instructions and optimizing your knowledge articles for Service Assistant, see [Grounding with Knowledge](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_knowled_topics.htm&type=5&language=en_US). - **Straightforward resolution**. Avoid complex issues for your initial setup and testing. Start with issue types that have a clear resolution path and resolution steps that you can automate with agent actions. Scale to more complex issues after Service Assistant is set up and operating. After you identify your use cases, plan your subagent structure. Each issue type that you want Service Assistant to resolve maps to a subagent, and the subagent's description is the reasoning anchor for the plan. The description tells Service Assistant which issue it's resolving and which knowledge articles to search. You don't need a unique subagent for every issue variation. Instead, group related variations into a single, well-structured subagent. For example, one Transaction Declined subagent can cover several variations. Service Assistant uses the subagent description, including any listed variations, to match the record details to the subagent. The more detail the description provides, the more reliably Service Assistant matches a record to the right subagent. For more guidance, see [Subagent Strategy for Service Assistant](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_topics_pb.htm&type=5&language=en_US). | Subagent Part | Example | | --- | --- | | Label | Transaction Declined | | Description | Guide service reps in helping customers resolve declined credit card transactions. Questions are related to authorization failures, including declining reason codes such as insufficient funds, suspected fraud, incorrect card details, travel blocks, and daily spending limits. | | Scope | Your job is to assist service reps in identifying the reasons behind declined transactions and providing the steps to either allow the charge or secure the customer's account. Don't handle inquiries outside of declined transactions and account security. | If you plan to automate tasks with agent actions, identify which steps in your resolution workflow are good candidates for automation before you begin. Take stock of your existing flows, Apex classes, and prompt templates that can serve as the basis for custom actions. You set up and configure actions with the standard Agentforce action process. We provide general guidelines and details on how to effectively surface actions in service plans in [Grounding with Agent Actions](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_actions.htm&language=en_US). ## Agent Setup Considerations - Service Assistant is supported only in the [legacy Agentforce Builder](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ai.agent_builder_explore.htm&type=5&language=en_US), not the [new Agentforce Builder](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ai.agent_builder_tour.htm&type=5&language=en_US). Agentforce Script isn't supported. Starting in July 2026, the requirement that new agents can be created only in the new Agentforce Builder doesn't apply to Service Assistant. You can continue to create and configure a Service Assistant agent in the legacy builder until further notice. See [Create Agents in the New Builder Only Starting July 2026](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=release-notes.rn_agentforce_legacy_agent_creation.htm&language=en_US&release=262&type=5). - The steps walk you through all mandatory agent setup to create your Service Assistant agent and add topics and instructions. Topics and instructions play a critical role in Service Assistant and require a particular structure. Make sure that you've reviewed [Grounding Service Assistant with Topics](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_topics_start.htm&type=5&language=en_US). - Service Assistant has its own agent template: Agentforce Service Assistant. When you create the agent, an agent user is automatically assigned and named ServicePlanner User. The user is assigned two permission sets: Service Planner Agent User and Agentforce\_Service\_Assistant Permissions. Agentforce\_Service\_Assistant Permissions is the default permission set name. If you give your agent a name other than Service Assistant, that name is shown in the permission set name. - We only officially certify the use of the knowledge data library type for Service Assistant. However, this doesn’t prevent you from stetting up and testing other data types (file upload, custom retrievers, and web search), but we don't provide setup guidance or recommendations specific to those data types for Service Assistant. All set up and usage follows the general Agentforce guidance. For details on custom retrievers, see Retrieve Data. ## Testing Service Assistant Testing Service Assistant is manual. Service Assistant isn't supported in the Agentforce Testing Center because service plans are provided through a Lightning web component. In the Agentforce Builder, you can only check that your subagents and instructions are selected based on your input. To test your setup, generate a service plan on a record that meets your eligibility criteria, and then evaluate the plan step by step. Confirm that the guidance reflects your grounding sources and that Service Assistant surfaces the right actions at the right time. As you test, refine your subagent descriptions, knowledge articles, and action descriptions until the plans match what you expect. For more guidance, see [Test Service Assistant](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_comps_build.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "To test the accuracy of your Service Assistant setup, create service plans on the record page. How you test depends on the plan type you use."). - **[Complete General Setup for Service Assistant](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_basics.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Complete the general setup that's required for both Service Assistant for Case and Messaging. - **[Set Up Service Assistant for Case](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_case.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Complete the required setup steps for Service Assistant for Case. - **[Set Up Service Assistant for Messaging](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_msg.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Complete the required setup steps for Service Assistant for Messaging. - **[Set Up Service Assistant for Voice](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_vc.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Complete the required setup steps for Service Assistant for Voice. - **[Set Up Context Variables for Service Assistant](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sp_setup_cv.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Give Service Assistant the ID of the active record so that it can complete actions such as closing a case or updating a record without the service rep entering the ID manually.