Service Cloud Chat Developer Guide

About This Guide
Prerequisites
API Versions
Customize Deployments with the Deployment APIs
Create Deployments
Log Deployment Activity with the Deployment APIs
Customize Your Chat Window with the Deployment APIs
Customize Chat Buttons with the Deployment APIs
Find and Create Records Automatically with the Deployment APIs
addCustomDetail
findOrCreate
setName
Search for Knowledge Articles with the Deployment APIs
Find and Create Records Deployment API Code Sample
Customize Automated Chat Invitations with the Deployment APIs
Deployment API Code Sample
Use Pre-Chat to Gather Visitor Information and Set Context for the Agent
Implement a Custom Chat Window Using Visualforce
Use Post-Chat to Wrap Up the Chat Interaction with Your Customer
Set Up Direct-to-Agent Chat Routing with the Deployment APIs
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Note: This release is in preview. Features described here don’t become generally available until the latest general availability date that Salesforce announces for this release. Before then, and where features are noted as beta, pilot, or developer preview, we can’t guarantee general availability within any particular time frame or at all. Make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products and features.

Find and Create Records Automatically with the Deployment APIs

Use the Deployment API to search for or create Salesforce records—like a case, contact, account, or lead—automatically when an agent begins a chat with a customer.

The legacy chat product is scheduled for retirement on February 14, 2026, and is in maintenance mode until then. During this phase, you can continue to use chat, but we no longer recommend that you implement new chat channels. To avoid service interruptions to your customers, migrate to Messaging for In-App and Web before that date. Messaging offers many of the chat features that you love plus asynchronous conversations that can be picked back up at any time. Learn about chat retirement in Help.

Important

You can add any of these methods as additional scripts within the code that’s automatically generated when you create a deployment.