Conversation summaries and the Pilot Logbook
Two of Pilot's more practical features for team workflows are conversation summaries and the Logbook. Both exist to solve the same underlying problem: context loss when agents switch, conversations go quiet, or tickets span multiple sessions.
Conversation summaries
A conversation summary is exactly what it sounds like — Pilot reads the full thread and produces a compact, readable summary of what happened, what was resolved, and what (if anything) is still open.
How to generate a summary
Open any conversation and go to the Pilot panel. Click Summarise conversation. Pilot will produce a summary in a few seconds covering:
- What the customer contacted about
- Key information exchanged (errors reported, account details mentioned, steps taken)
- Current status — whether the issue is resolved or still in progress
The summary appears in the Pilot panel. You can copy it into an internal note to make it permanently visible on the conversation, or use it as a reference during a handoff.
When summaries are useful
- Handoffs between agents or shifts: Instead of reading 40 messages, the incoming agent reads the summary and is up to speed in 30 seconds.
- Closing complex tickets: A summary in the internal notes creates a useful audit trail.
- Escalations: When passing a ticket to a senior agent or a different team, a summary gives them immediate context without requiring them to read the history.
The Pilot Logbook
The Logbook is a structured record that agents build up about a customer across multiple conversations. Where a conversation summary covers a single thread, the Logbook covers the customer relationship over time.
Think of it as a persistent notes layer for a contact — but one that Pilot can read and use when drafting replies.
What the Logbook contains
The Logbook is not auto-generated. Agents add entries manually when they learn something meaningful about a customer that is worth preserving:
- Technical environment ("running on Ubuntu 22.04, self-hosted, Docker Compose")
- Communication preferences ("prefers short replies, wants to be CC'd on everything")
- Account context ("upgraded to paid plan in March, previously had billing issues")
- Recurring issues ("has reported the same sync problem three times")
How to add Logbook entries
Open the contact record (not just the conversation). In the contact panel you will find a Logbook tab. Click Add entry, write the note, and save. Entries are timestamped and attributed to the agent who wrote them.
Any agent who handles that customer's conversations can see and add to the Logbook.
How Pilot uses the Logbook
When you generate a draft reply on a conversation, Pilot automatically pulls the contact's Logbook entries as additional context. This means:
- Pilot will not suggest a reply that contradicts known account details
- Technical drafts will reflect the customer's actual environment if it is logged
- Pilot can reference past issues when they are clearly relevant
The Logbook does not override the conversation content — it supplements it. If there is a conflict between what the Logbook says and what the customer just wrote, Pilot will use the current message as the primary signal.
Logbook versus internal notes
Internal notes are per-conversation. The Logbook is per-contact and persistent across all conversations. Use internal notes for context that matters only for the current ticket; use the Logbook for facts about the customer that will stay relevant indefinitely.