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A channel is where an end user talks to your agent: the widget on your site, a WhatsApp number, a Slack workspace, an email address, a phone number. One agent answers on every channel it is linked to with the same persona, skills, and knowledge. This section is for whoever owns the provider account as much as for the developer who built the agent.

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Connection steps

Every channel follows the same shape; each guide fills in the provider steps.
1

Release the agent

Channels deliver to the agent’s production version. Push, create an agent version, and promote it first; see Release an agent.
2

Dashboard: add the channel

In the admin dashboard open Agents, select the agent, and select + in its Channels section. Pick the channel and follow its wizard. The admin dashboard is the only place to run the Meta sign-in flows (WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram), to connect Teams, and to disconnect or reconfigure a channel.
3

Terminal: or link it with the CLI

lua channels links five channel types from its Link new channel menu when you hold the provider credentials: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, email, Slack (private), and Slack (public). The same menu manages phone numbers. Linking is interactive; lua channels list is the only scriptable action. See lua channels.
4

Send a test message

Message the agent on the channel. Each guide ends with the message to send and the reply to expect. For a channel you haven’t connected yet, use Lua’s test channels.
The channels concept has the matrix of all seventeen inbound channel values, the seven that Channels.send can reach, and where each one is set up.

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Channel guides

Messaging apps

Connect WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, RCS, and iMessage.

Team chat

Install the agent in Slack or Microsoft Teams and tune when it answers.

Email

Give the agent a generated inbox or forward your own address to it.

Web widget

Embed the chat widget on your site and style it.

Phone and voice

Buy a number for SMS and voice calls, or join meetings.

Dashboard-only inboxes

Route Front and MessageBird conversations to the agent.
All guides: WhatsApp · Messenger · Instagram · RCS · iMessage · Slack · Teams · Teams with your own Azure Bot · Email · SMS and phone numbers · Voice calls · Meetings · Front · MessageBird · Chat API over REST

Test on Lua's channels

Talk to your agent on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, or Slack before you connect anything.

Send proactive messages

Reach end users first with Channels.send and WhatsApp message templates.

Hand off to a human

Let an end user reach a person and pause the model while a teammate owns the conversation.

Gate messages with a processor

Run your code on every message before the model and on every reply after it.

Response formatting

See which components each channel renders and which it drops.

Channels reference

Read send, whatsapp.sendTemplate, email.send, and delivery status.