Hello Buddy · Marketplace

How to use Hello Buddy

Last updated: October 28, 2026

This guide explains how to hire a Buddy, connect it to your shop, and publish a Buddy of your own. It describes the Hello Buddy product. Product prices, shipping rules, and shop policies still belong in your store knowledge, not on this page.

The page for people is https://koohooai.com/guide

1. What Hello Buddy does

Hello Buddy is a marketplace for AI shop assistants, called Buddy. A shop hires one or more Buddy cards and uses them to reply to customers on LINE Official Account, a Facebook Page, Instagram direct messages, and a chat widget on the shop website. Each card belongs to one desk:

  • Sales records a lead with the product, budget, name, and phone. It cannot take payment, read a transfer slip, or close the sale.
  • Support records an order and can read that order's status back. It cannot edit or delete an order. A slip waits for the shop to approve it.
  • Booking checks the calendar, then records a time request. It cannot confirm the slot. The shop confirms it.
  • Class saves a short study note, score, and the topic still left. It cannot take orders, quote prices, or discuss payment slips.
  • General reads a link and saves a short task note. It cannot record an order, a lead, or an appointment.
  • Library reads a link and answers from the knowledge saved for this hire. It cannot record an order, a lead, an appointment, or a study note.

The same account can also create Buddy and publish them for other shops to hire. Hiring has no monthly platform fee. Replies use credits.

2. Create an account

  1. Open Hello Buddy and choose Sign In.
  2. Create an account with email and password, or continue with Google.
  3. After the first sign-in, the account is ready to hire a Buddy or open Studio.

The home page, Marketplace, this guide, the Privacy Policy, and the Terms of Service can be read before signing in. Dashboard, Studio, and Account require a signed-in user.

3. Credits and packages

A new account starts with 100 credits. Credits pay for AI replies. Each Buddy shows its own price in credits per message. Saving a new customer order uses one additional credit.

Credit packs:

  • Starter: 149 THB for 300 credits
  • Pro: 299 THB for 650 credits
  • Business: 999 THB for 2,300 credits

Every pack can be used with LINE, Facebook, Instagram, and the web widget. Open Top Up in the dashboard or on the Account page and pay with Stripe. Credits are added after Stripe confirms the payment.

The Account page has a credit history with usage on live channels and top-ups. You can export that history as a CSV file. If the shop runs out of credits, live channels tell the customer that the shop cannot reply until credits are added.

4. Hire a Buddy

  1. Open the hiring market.
  2. Search by name, description, or role, or filter by department: Sales and Marketing, Customer Support, Tutor and Education, Booking and Appointments, General Assistant, or Knowledge Assistant.
  3. Choose Hire Buddy.
  4. Confirm. The monthly platform fee is free. The dialog shows the credit price per message.

A new hire opens the office. Hiring the same Buddy again opens that Buddy's workspace. A shop can keep several hires at once. Draft listings stay hidden from other shops.

A YouTube clip on a marketplace card is a preview only. The AI does not watch the video, and the video is not added to its knowledge.

5. Office and rooms

The office shows a card for every hired Buddy. Open one to enter its department. A department has up to six rooms:

  • Practice room is a private chat. Those messages are not sent to customers. The shop name, square photo, and knowledge are saved here.
  • Order counter lists the records that role can keep. Roles that do not keep records do not show this room.
  • Shop floor shows customer conversations from LINE, Facebook, and the web widget.
  • Shopfront connects LINE, Facebook, Instagram, and the website widget. Live customer messages start once a channel is connected.
  • Storeroom connects Google Sheets, Calendar, and the developer webhook.
  • Ledger shows closed jobs, credits, and customers for this hire.

On a phone, the office and rooms still open. Channel setup is easier on a larger screen.

The AI uses Bangkok time when a customer says "tomorrow" or "next week".

6. Store knowledge

In the practice room, fill in the shop details and choose Save Knowledge Base.

  • AI Name is the brand name customers should see, such as a shop nickname. If you leave it empty, the marketplace name is used.
  • AI Photo is a square profile photo on the card, in the practice room, and on the website widget button. If you leave it empty, the creator's marketplace photo is used.
  • Store Knowledge Base is for this shop only: products, prices, promotions, shipping, policies, and common questions. The Buddy prefers this text over the creator's general knowledge.
  • Live Knowledge URL is an optional public Google Docs or Google Sheets link. The Buddy reads that document when it answers, so edits in the document are picked up on later replies.

Payment QR codes and product photos should be Google Drive image links inside the knowledge text. A normal Drive "view" link is not enough for the chat apps to display the picture.

7. Google Sheets and Calendar

  1. Choose Connect Google Account and allow access.
  2. Paste a Google Sheets link, or choose Create New Sheet.
  3. Save Knowledge Base again so the sheet link is stored.

When the Buddy records a new order, it adds a row with the time, order summary, status, customer name, phone, address, and appointment. If the customer gives a start time, the Buddy can also create an event on the connected Google Calendar. The order still appears in Hello Buddy if the sheet or calendar update does not finish.

Payment slips sent on LINE or the web widget can be read by the Buddy. Connect Google first if you want those images stored in the shop's Google Drive.

8. Connect LINE

  1. In the shopfront, choose Connect LINE OA.
  2. Paste the long-lived Channel Access Token and the Channel Secret from LINE Developers.
  3. Choose Test connection. A successful test shows the official account name.
  4. Copy the Webhook URL shown in Hello Buddy into the LINE Developers console.
  5. Save the LINE integration in Hello Buddy, then choose Verify in LINE Developers.
  6. Turn on Use webhook in the LINE Messaging API settings.

The Buddy can reply to text and images. Save the Channel Secret in Hello Buddy before you verify the webhook, and keep that secret the same as the one in LINE Developers.

9. Connect Facebook and Instagram

  1. Choose Connect Meta.
  2. Continue with Facebook and grant access.
  3. Select the Facebook Page to connect. A page marked "No access" cannot be selected.

The Buddy replies to Messenger conversations and to new comments on the Page. Comment replies stay short and can invite the customer to continue in Inbox. Select every Page on the Facebook screen, including one that belongs to a Meta Business. Those Pages appear in the list.

If the dashboard says the Facebook token has expired, disconnect the Page and connect it again.

10. Add the web chat widget

Hiring a Buddy does not place a chat box on your website. Install it yourself:

  1. Choose Install Web Widget.
  2. Set the chat name, greeting, color, and whether the button sits at the bottom right or bottom left.
  3. Enter at least one allowed domain, one site per line, then save. The widget stays hidden until a domain is saved. shop.example.com also covers www. *.example.com covers subdomains. localhost is for local testing.
  4. Copy the snippet and paste it before the closing body tag.
  • HTML: paste it on every page where the chat should appear.
  • WordPress: paste it in the footer with WPCode, Insert Headers and Footers, or in the theme footer before the closing body tag.
  • Shopify: edit theme.liquid and paste it before the closing body tag.

Name, color, greeting, and position are saved in Hello Buddy, so you do not edit the snippet when those change. The button shows Installed after the snippet has loaded from an allowed domain, and Live if that happened within the last 24 hours.

11. Reply yourself

The shop floor lists customer chats from LINE, Facebook, and the web widget. On LINE, Messenger, and the web widget you can type a reply yourself. Sending that reply pauses the card for that customer until you choose Resume AI. A comment on the Page feed stays a short reply from the card. The log opens on the latest post. Comments from earlier posts stay folded, and the card replies using only the comments on the current post.

12. Orders, leads, and appointments

What the Buddy records depends on its role. A Customer Support Buddy records an order only after it has the item and a name or phone number. The order waits for payment review. Choose Approve Slip after you have checked the transfer. A slip whose amount does not match the order is highlighted. Approving marks the order approved and sends the customer a confirmation on LINE or Facebook, together with the order summary. The Buddy can also read that order's status back to the customer.

A Sales and Marketing Buddy records a lead and quotes only the product catalog you save in the dashboard. Choose Mark contacted, then Mark quoted, Mark won, or Mark lost. It does not take payment or read a transfer slip. A Booking and Appointments Buddy checks the connected Google Calendar before it records a time request. If that window looks taken, it asks for another time. Choose Confirm booking after you have checked the slot. That confirmation adds the event to Google Calendar. The Buddy cannot confirm the slot itself.

A Tutor and Education Buddy saves a short study note, an optional score, and the topic still left. A General Assistant saves a task note and can summarize a link. Neither records an order, a lead, or an appointment. A Knowledge Assistant reads a link and answers from the knowledge saved for this hire. It does not record an order, a lead, an appointment, or a study note.

The Buddy records a new item once in the same conversation. A later payment slip confirms that shop order instead of creating a second copy.

13. Publish a Buddy

Open Studio to create a Buddy, then choose Publish Buddy. You can edit or delete only the Buddy you created.

  • Avatar: an emoji or an uploaded image. A square photo is enough for the profile on the card.
  • Name, role, short description, and credit price. The lowest price is 1 credit per message.
  • System instructions set the personality, tone, and rules.
  • Knowledge base can be typed or uploaded as a .txt file. An optional public Google Docs or Sheets link can stay in sync.
  • YouTube link is shown on the marketplace card only.

Creators who have connected a Stripe account can choose Gemini 3.1 Pro. That model requires a price of at least 3 credits per message. Otherwise the Buddy uses Gemini 2.5 Flash.

14. Wallet, affiliate, and payouts

The Account page shows available credits and the creator wallet. Verified creators earn when other shops use their Buddy on live channels. Affiliate earnings are separate.

After you connect Stripe, the Account page shows a Buddy Pass affiliate link in the form https://koohooai.com/?ref=YOUR_ID. When a new user signs up through that link and later buys credits, you receive a 20% lifetime share of those top-up payments. The referral is saved when the new account is created. It is not applied to an account that already exists.

To withdraw, link a Stripe Connect account ID that starts with acct_. The combined creator and affiliate balance must be at least 500 THB. The withdrawal is sent to that Stripe account. See the Terms of Service for the creator and affiliate program.

Developer webhook

A shop that has connected a channel can save an outgoing URL and an optional secret in the storeroom. A Buddy Pass badge is not required. The URL receives three events:

  • message after a live reply on LINE, Meta, or the web widget
  • record.saved when a new counter record is written
  • record.updated when that record's status or tracking number changes

The payload carries the record type, status, summary, customer name, phone, channel, and card id. It does not include the system instruction or the knowledge base. If a secret is saved, the body is signed with HMAC SHA256 in the x-koohoo-signature header. A reply from that URL is not sent to the customer. This file does not accept commands to hire a card, spend credits, connect a channel, or close a job.

Common questions

I hired a Buddy. Why is there no chat on my website?

Hiring does not install the widget. Save an allowed domain, paste the snippet, and open that site.

Why did LINE reject the webhook?

Save the Channel Secret in Hello Buddy first, use the Webhook URL from the dashboard, then verify it in LINE Developers and turn on Use webhook.

Why does the Buddy give the wrong price?

Save the store knowledge again, and check that a live Google Docs or Sheets link is public. A YouTube preview is not part of the knowledge.

I paid, but the credits are not there yet.

Credits are added after Stripe confirms the payment. The three packs are 149, 299, and 999 THB.