Deployments

How to make changes to your agent and publish the new version to customers.

Your agent has a Live version. This is the version your customers interact with. You never edit Live directly.

Instead you work in a copy of the agent, called a Branch. It saves as you go, without affecting the Live version. When you are ready to push the changes to customers, you publish. This creates a new Live version, and from that moment it handles every customer conversation.

Publishing

When you publish, your changes are merged onto Live. Merging means your changes are added on top of what is already there, rather than replacing it.

That matters when more than one person is working on a project. If a colleague publishes their Branch while you are still working on yours, your change is added on top of theirs. If you both changed the same thing, you are asked which version to keep before anything goes live. Nothing is lost silently.

Rolling back a change

Every publish is saved as a version in Live’s history. If a change goes wrong, you can roll back to an earlier version in one step.

Live history on the Deployments page, with every published version in order

1. Open Live history on the Deployments page

   Every publish is listed there as a version.

2. Choose an earlier version and roll back

   Live returns to that version in one step. Nothing else changes.

Because publishing merges rather than replaces, a rollback cannot be silently undone by someone else’s publish.

Three ways to work

Agent Studio has three deployment modes. A mode sets how many Branches can exist at once, and therefore how many people can work on separate changes at the same time.

New projects start in Simple mode. To see which mode you are in, or to change it, open Settings on the Deployments page. Switching mode never deletes any work.

Mode	How it works	Best for
Simple	One Branch. You make your changes, test them, and publish.	One person making straightforward changes. The default for new projects.
Branches	Each person has their own Branch and publishes it when ready. Nobody waits for anyone else.	Small teams working on separate changes at the same time.
Sub-branches	A team shares one Branch, splits the work into Sub-branches, and publishes everything together.	Several people building one update that ships as a package.

Choosing a deployment mode under Deployment settings

Each mode has its own page, written so you can read it on its own. Start with the mode you are in.

Terminology

Term	What it means
Environment	Where your agent runs. Your project has more than one, so the version you are editing is never the one customers are using.
Live	The environment that runs the version of your agent your customers talk to.
Sandbox	The environment where you build and test. Nothing here reaches a customer.
Staging	An optional environment for testing a change the way a customer would experience it. Not available in Simple mode.
Branch	A copy of the agent that you make your changes in. Simple mode has one. In Branches and Sub-branches modes each person has their own. Publishing merges it onto Live.
Sub-branch	A copy made from a Branch, so a team can split one piece of work between them. It merges back into its Branch.
Publish	Push your Branch to Live. Your changes are merged onto Live, and every publish becomes a version in Live’s history.
Merge	Join two copies of the agent into one. Your changes are layered on top of what is already there, so nothing is replaced. A Branch merges onto Live, and a Sub-branch merges into its Branch.
Roll back	Put an earlier version of Live back.
Sync	Pull in changes made to the parent since you started, so your copy is up to date. A Branch’s parent is Live. A Sub-branch’s parent is its Branch.
Out of sync	The parent has changed since you started. You need to sync before you can merge or publish.

Related pages

Simple mode

One Branch, test it, publish. The default for new projects.

Branches mode

Everyone works in their own Branch and publishes when ready.

Sub-branches mode

A team shares one Branch and ships an update together.

Environments

What Sandbox, Staging and Live are, in plain English.

Compare changes

See exactly what will change before you publish.

Everyday practice

Hotfixes, seasonal updates and best practice, in the Academy.

Environments and testing FAQ

Common questions about Sandbox, Staging and Live.