The conversation detail panels
Open a conversation in Atender and you see two regions: the timeline on the left, and a set of panels on the right. The timeline contains the message exchange and inline events from the thread; the panels are the context that lets you handle it well.
The right side gathers several surfaces. They share one entry point: a rail of icons at the right edge of the conversation, and each surface opens as a panel beside it. You don’t have to memorize the layout — every surface is one click away from that rail.
The surfaces
- Conversation Details — Contact details, conversation metadata, event timeline, calls and recordings — Default — the always-on context
- Sidekick — AI suggestions, related KB articles, related Handbook procedures, drafted replies — When you’re not sure what to say next
- Custom Fields (a section of Conversation Details) — The custom fields configured for your workspace, populated for this conversation and contact — When you need structured context (order ID, account tier, etc.)
- Tool Docks — Tenant-configured integrations — CRM lookups, order systems, logistics trackers — When your workspace has wired up external tools
- Previous Conversations — Every prior conversation with this customer — When the question references “last time” or “before”
- Comments — Internal comments on this conversation, threaded — When coordinating with teammates
- Side Conversations — Private threads with non-customers — vendors, internal teams — When you’ve escalated or looped someone in
- Cases & Issues — Linked cases and/or linked issues for the current conversation, depending on which modules your workspace uses; each linked issue row also copies the whole issue out as Markdown — When you need to connect the conversation to a case or reported issue, or hand issue context to a coding agent
If your workspace uses Issues, linked issues can also appear as colored pills in the conversation header. The Cases & Issues panel lets permitted agents link, unlink, or report issues from the conversation. Each linked issue row also carries a read-only copy button — a copy icon whose tooltip reads Copy full summary — available to anyone who holds View issues. It puts the whole issue on your clipboard as a single Markdown document, written to be pasted straight into a coding agent’s prompt.
Two things to know before you paste it somewhere. It covers every conversation linked to that issue, not just the one you copied from (up to 20, with long transcripts truncated), and by default it includes internal team-only comments — so read it before it goes anywhere a customer can see. Admins with issue-management rights choose which sections are copied, and in what order, under Settings → Issue Tracker → Copy Issue Summary; every section can be switched off, in which case the copied summary is empty.
Workspaces that don’t use Cases or Issues won’t see those module-specific controls.
Conversation Details — the default
Conversation Details shows the customer’s name and contact methods, the conversation’s metadata, and an event timeline of everything that’s happened on the thread: status changes, assignments, snoozes, CC additions, AI handoffs, customer verification, calls. Each event has an icon and a timestamp.
Many of the same events can also appear inline in the conversation thread when timeline detail is set to Detailed. Press H, use the Show detailed timeline in conversations / Hide detailed timeline in conversations entry in the Command Palette, or change Settings → Preferences → Workflow → Timeline detail in conversations to switch between Detailed and Compact.
For voice conversations, Conversation Details also includes a Calls section. Use it to review the call history, open available recordings, and see IVR choices the customer made before or during the conversation.
Most of the time, this is what you want open. It’s read-mostly — you can edit contact details inline, but mostly you’re scanning for context. When calls are present, the phone-count chip in the conversation header opens the Conversation Information panel directly, so call context is one click away.
Sidekick — the AI assistant
Sidekick is your AI co-pilot. It reads the conversation and proactively surfaces:
- Drafted replies grounded in the Handbook procedures, Knowledge Base articles and product manuals it matched
- Knowledge Base articles that match the customer’s question
- Relevant Handbook procedures
- Links found in the matching Handbook procedures
You don’t ask Sidekick — Sidekick volunteers. Open the panel mid-conversation and the suggestions are already there. See What is Sidekick?.
Custom Fields — the structured context
Custom Fields hold the structured data your workspace configures — order numbers, account tiers, contract IDs, anything you want surfaced consistently. The Conversation Details panel shows the values for this conversation (and the linked contact, when fields are scoped to a contact).
If a field is empty and you have permission to edit, you can fill it in here without leaving the thread.
Tool Docks — extensible integrations
Tool Docks are tenant-configured panels that bring external systems into the conversation view — an order system, a custom CRM, a logistics tracker. They show context for the current conversation pulled from those systems.
What appears here depends on what your workspace has wired up. If nothing is configured, no tool dock icon appears in the rail at all.
Previous Conversations — institutional memory
Agents can click the AI summary button to summarize the customer’s conversation history across channels. It does not run automatically; the summary renders as Markdown, defaults to the customer’s language, and includes controls to Translate or Regenerate it when needed.
Every prior conversation with this customer is listed by true last activity, newest first. The displayed age is based on meaningful customer or agent activity, not system updates, imports, or other metadata-only changes. Click any of them to read the full exchange. If a prior conversation was merged into another conversation, its row is marked Merged. Opening it shows a notice, “This conversation was merged into …,” with a link to the surviving primary conversation where the messages now live.
This is where institutional memory lives. The agent on today’s call may not have spoken with this customer before — but the full history is right here. “Last month they said…” becomes a lookup, not a guess.
Comments — threaded internal notes
Internal comments on this conversation, threaded by parent and reply. Comments are notes between agents, never visible to the customer. Use them to:
- Tag a teammate (
@Mary) and pull them in - Insert a snippet (
!!triggers the snippet picker) - Leave a note for whoever picks up next (“waiting on engineering ticket #1234”)
Side Conversations — private external threads
External threads with people who aren’t on the customer-facing conversation — typically email side threads with vendors, internal teams, or partners. Different from comments because they actually leave Atender as real outbound messages; different from the main reply because they’re private to the people you bring in.
See Side conversations.
Switching surfaces
Each surface is one click away from the panel rail at the right edge of the conversation — one icon each for Conversation Details, Previous Conversations, Sidekick, Cases & Issues (when enabled), Side Conversations and Comments, plus one icon for every tool dock your workspace has configured. Switching closes the surface you were on, and it opens fresh when you come back — an unsent comment draft is the exception, and is kept.
A few surfaces (Comments, Side Conversations) badge their entry point — Comments with the number of comments on the conversation, Side Conversations with the number of side threads waiting on you — so you can see something is there without opening it.
What’s NOT on the right side
Some things people expect on the right are elsewhere:
- Tag picker opens as a modal with
T, not a panel. - Assign picker opens as a modal with
A. - Snooze dialog opens with
Z.