Frequently asked questions

Does the AI run commands on your servers by itself?

No. The AI never runs anything on its own. It reads what your customer wrote, works out which known issue it matches, and words a reply. Every actual check or change is a pre-approved operation from a fixed list, and the decision to run it is made by our code, not by the AI. Read-only diagnostics run automatically. Anything that changes state is gated, and higher-impact changes always wait for a human. See Safety and permissions.

Can it touch a customer’s site that they do not own?

No, and this is checked in code rather than left to the AI’s judgment. When a chat starts, Panelbot looks up what that customer actually owns through your billing portal. If someone mentions a domain that is not on their account, Panelbot refuses to act on it, no matter what the chat says. Ownership is verified every time before anything touches a server.

What happens when the AI cannot solve something?

It hands off to a real person on your team. When the AI is not confident, when a fix is risky and needs approval, when the problem is outside what it handles, or when the customer asks for a person, it stops and escalates. Your staff pick up through a ticket or live chat with the full conversation in front of them, and the customer is told a human has been brought in. Nothing risky happens unattended. See When a human takes over.

What if the AI gets a diagnosis wrong?

The design limits the damage a wrong reading can do. The AI cannot invent an action or reach for a tool that is not on the approved list, so a mistaken guess turns into a wrong suggestion or an escalation, not an unwanted change to a server. Reversible low-risk fixes only run if you have opted in, and impactful changes need a person to approve them. Every diagnostic and every action is logged, so you can always see what happened and why.

Which control panels do you support?

cPanel/WHM and DirectAdmin. Panelbot connects to your servers over the panel API with a scoped credential you grant, so nothing is installed on the server and no root is required; a reseller credential is enough. An optional agent exists for the few jobs a credential cannot reach. See Connect your first server.

Why did Panelbot not take root access?

Because root on your servers is your decision, not ours to assume. Your billing portal usually holds a root credential for every server it manages, and when the connector registers one it deliberately does not send that credential. The single exception is when you approve an agent install on a cPanel server: the connector then hands over its stored root credential once, for that install only, and Panelbot uses it to run the installer and does not store it (on a server stored with a password, a temporary full-access token is created for the install and revoked right after). Otherwise it mints a new restricted one on the machine instead, and that is all Panelbot stores. The trade is honest rather than hidden: a few jobs genuinely need root, such as reading raw server logs, managing the firewall as root, or restarting a hung service, and those wait for your decision instead of happening on an assumption. When you want them, the agent grants root as a fixed list of exact commands you can read on your own machine rather than as an open credential. See With and without the agent and Permission tiers explained.

Is the agent safe?

It is built so the answer does not depend on trusting us. The agent runs under an unprivileged system account, never as root, and opens no network ports, so it adds nothing an outsider can connect to. Every instruction it receives is signed, addressed to your account and that one machine, expiring, and run directly rather than through a shell. The only things it can do with elevation are the exact commands listed in a sudoers file on your own server, which is root-owned, readable by you, and enforced by the operating system rather than by our code. Updates are signature-checked twice and roll themselves back if a new version fails to start. Removing it takes one command and leaves the server working over its panel credential. The complete account, including what it still cannot do if Panelbot itself were compromised, is in What the agent can and cannot do.

Which billing systems do you work with?

WHMCS and Blesta. Panelbot connects to your billing portal so it knows who each customer is and what they own. Both have a ready-made integration to drop the chat widget into your portal. See Connect your billing portal.

Is my customers’ data safe?

Yes, and the design keeps it that way. Customer chat messages are treated as untrusted input and validated against what we already know is true before anything acts on them. Sensitive content and secrets are never written to logs, and stored credentials are encrypted at rest. The AI never sees another customer’s data or makes security decisions. See Data handling and privacy.

Can one customer’s chat affect another customer?

No. Every hosting company on Panelbot, and every one of their customers, is strictly separated. An agent running on one company’s server cannot receive another company’s instructions. We treat any cross-tenant leak as the most serious class of issue there is. See Tenant isolation.

Do I have to let it make changes at all?

No. You decide how much it can do. Out of the box, the diagnostic and troubleshooting checks that only read information run automatically, and that alone resolves or explains a lot of tickets. Change-making actions are something you switch on deliberately, and the highest-impact ones always route to a human regardless. You can also choose which problem areas the assistant handles at all, turning any of them off completely, so nothing from that area runs. You can run Panelbot as a read-only diagnostician if that is where you want to start.

How do I turn features off?

From the widget settings in the app. You choose what the chat handles, and the option that lets it perform higher-impact actions is off by default and needs your explicit consent to enable. You can also disable the widget entirely at any time. See Configure and enable the chat widget.

Does the AI decide which server to act on?

No. Picking the server, checking ownership, and choosing which operation runs are all handled by our code. The AI’s only jobs are understanding the customer, pulling out the relevant details, and wording replies. It does not choose actions, pick servers, or make authorization calls. See What the AI does and does not do.

Can my staff take over a conversation?

Yes, on every plan. The Live Chat Dashboard is included everywhere, Free too. Your team can watch conversations, jump in, and take over from the AI, with the transcript and diagnostic context right there, and team seats are unlimited. See The support inbox and live chat handoff.

How is usage billed?

Each plan includes a set number of AI conversations a month, and your quota resets monthly: on your billing date each month (yearly plans reset monthly too, not once a year), or on Free, on the day of the month you signed up. You can see exactly where you stand on the Usage page at any time. If you need more in a given month on a paid plan, you can buy top-up packs, and prepaid chats never expire. See Usage, quotas, and credits.

Can I try it before paying?

Yes, on the Free plan: 30 conversations a month, unlimited servers, no card, no time limit. It is the whole product, including the live Chat Dashboard, not a stripped-down demo. When 30 a month stops being enough you add a card and move to a paid plan, and billing starts that day. Paid plans do not include a trial period. See Compare Panelbot plans.

How do I cancel?

You cancel yourself in one click from your dashboard. When you cancel, you keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for, so nothing is cut off the moment you click. There is no phone call or retention gauntlet to get through.

Can I export or delete my data?

Yes. You can ask us for an export of your account’s records, and you can request deletion. Your audit trail of diagnostics and actions is yours to review and export as well. See Audit trail and accountability.

Will it work for resellers, VPS, or dedicated customers?

Yes. Panelbot understands reseller accounts and their downstream customers, as well as VPS and dedicated servers, and it keeps every customer scoped to exactly what they own across those tiers. See Reseller, VPS, and dedicated support.

Where should I start?

Read What Panelbot can and cannot do for the honest scope, then walk the Getting started checklist when you are ready to connect it.

Related

• Start free on WHMCS or Blesta to try it on real tickets with no card.
• What the agent can and cannot do for the full disclosure on the optional agent.
• Limits and known boundaries for where Panelbot deliberately stops.
• Supported platforms and integrations for the panels and portals it works with.
• Compare Panelbot plans for what each plan includes.