Optimizely Opal is an agent orchestration platform that helps you work smarter across Optimizely One. Optimizely Opal is automatically available and works by default, but you can configure it based on your organization's needs. You must add users to Opal before they can use it.
Add users and set permissions
Add and manage users and their permissions for Opal in the Opti ID Admin Center. See manage users for instructions.
You can give users the following roles:
- Opal Administrator – Ability to manage and configure users, instructions, tools, agents, and connected product instances in the Optimizely Opal app. Can also access Opal Chat within the Opal app and any connected Optimizely products. See Get started with Optimizely Opal for administrators.
- Agent Builder – Ability to create instructions, build agents, and access the Agent Directory. Can also access Opal Chat within the Opal app and any connected Optimizely products. See Get started with Optimizely Opal for agent builders.
- Opal User – Ability to use Optimizely Opal from individual Optimizely products, with access to Opal Chat within the Opal app and any connected Optimizely products. See Get started with Optimizely Opal for users.
If the available system roles do not provide the specific access you want to grant users, you can create a custom role in the Opti ID Admin Center. See Custom roles for Optimizely Opal for what roles are available.
Access the Optimizely Opal app
The Optimizely Opal app is Opal's configuration dashboard, accessible through the product switcher in the global navigation.
- Log in to Optimizely.
- Select your organization.
-
Click Opal.
Customize Opal
You can customize Opal to tailor its behavior, responses, and integrations to match your organization's goals. By configuring custom instructions, agents, and tools, you can shape how Opal works with your team and systems, providing you a personalized experience instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.
Customizations ensure that Opal understands your brand voice, can access the right data, and performs actions that align with your workflows.
Ways to customize Opal
There are several ways to customize Opal, depending on the level of control you need:
- Connections – Link Opal to your Optimizely product instances so it can take action using real data and features. See the Product connections section.
- Instructions – Provide context that tells Opal how to behave and when to run. Instructions guide how Opal interprets requests and ensures consistent results. See Instructions overview.
- Agents – Build and add agents tailored to your organization’s unique processes. You control which tools they use, how they respond, and what workflows they execute. See the Agent directory overview, Specialized agents overview, and Workflow agents overview.
- Custom tools – Extend Opal’s capabilities by connecting it to your internal systems or third-party services through tools your organization creates. See Tools overview.
Why customize Opal
Customizing Opal is optional but provides more control and makes the platform more effective. The following are ways that customizing Opal empowers you:
- Ensures Opal understands your organization’s terminology, tone, and priorities.
- Automates common tasks with consistent, repeatable outcomes.
- Connects to the exact systems and products your team uses.
- Scales workflows without adding manual steps or complexity.
Opal App UI
The Opal App provides a centralized interface where you can access Opal's capabilities in one place. The Opal App UI support everything you need to configure, customize, and use Opal effectively. Each page helps you focus on outcomes while Opal handles the technical details behind the scenes.
Opal Chat
Chat is the conversational interface for Optimizely Opal. It lets you interact with Opal using natural language to complete tasks, get insights, and automate workflows without needing to know the underlying systems or commands.
You can ask Opal questions, make requests, or give instructions, and Opal determines the right tools and agents to use to deliver accurate, actionable results. Whether you need to generate content, analyze data, or manage experiments, Opal Chat provides a simple, intuitive way to work directly within the Opal platform.
See Optimizely Opal Chat for information.
Instructions
Instructions are the foundational context, rules, and behavioral guidelines that shape how Opal creates output and tailors it to your organization's unique needs.
See the Instructions overview for information.
Agents
Agents complete tasks for you in Opal. They interpret your requests, decide which tools to use, and deliver consistent results. The Agents page of the Opal App is where you can browse and install agents from the Agent Directory or create and manage specialized and workflow agents tailored to your organization’s needs. By configuring the right agents, you can streamline workflows and automate common tasks across your connected Optimizely products and external services.
See Agent overview for information.
Tools
Tools are the actions Opal uses to get work done. Each tool performs a specific task, such as creating a campaign, generating content, or uploading files. You can view the tools available to your organization, including system tools Optimizely builds and custom tools your team create. By connecting and configuring the right tools, you let Opal act on your behalf and integrate seamlessly with your systems and workflows.
See Tools overview for information.
How tools, instructions, and agents work together
In Opal, tools, instructions, and agents work together to complete tasks.
- Instructions define how Opal should shape its output and how how Opal uses tools, specifying the logic and steps needed to reach a goal.
- Tools provide the capabilities, such as accessing data or performing actions.
- Specialized agents combine tools and instructions into a packaged, specialized capability that can carry out tasks on its own.
- Workflow agents stitch together multiple agents into a complex workflow which is started by a trigger.
Understanding how these pieces connect helps you design effective workflows and get the most out of Opal.
Smart home automation analogy
Imagine Opal as a sophisticated smart home system that intelligently manages and automates various functions within a house. Each part of Opal can be divided into different parts of this smart home system.
Instructions = The smart home's core programming and user preferences.
Instructions are the fundamental rules, underlying code, and user-configured preferences that govern the entire smart home system. They dictate how all devices and routines behave, ensuring consistency, security, and personalization across the whole house.
- Smart home example – The system's default security protocols, the user's preferred temperature settings, or the general rules for when lights should be on or off.
- In Opal – These are the meta-level guidelines that shape Opal’s overall behavior, tone, and how it process and present information.
Tools = Device interfaces, communication protocols, and core functions.
The tools are the "things" that smart devices and agents use to get things done. These are the capabilities that let devices perform their tasks and interact within the smart home ecosystem, and with external services.
-
Smart home example
- Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
- Connecting to a music provider API for music playback.
- Connecting to a local weather service for temperature data.
- Light emission for a bulb.
- Temperature sensing for a thermostat.
- Motor activation for blinds.
- Brew for a coffee maker.
- In Opal – These are the basic capabilities or resources that specialized agents use to execute their tasks, often involving connecting to and leveraging external systems.
Specialized agent = An individual smart device.
A specialized agent is like an individual smart device (a smart light bulb, a smart thermostat, a smart coffee maker, or a smart lock). Each device has a specific, well-defined function it performs. It receives a command (input) and performs its action (output).
-
Smart home example – Each item performs a single, focused task.
- A smart light bulb turns on or off or changes color
- A smart thermostat adjusts the heating or cooling
- A smart lock secures a door.
- In Opal – A specialized agent performs a specific, well-defined task that often involves interacting with external systems or executing complex, encapsulated logic, with a clear input and output schema.
Workflow agents = A smart home "routine" or "scene".
A workflow agent is like a smart home "routine" or "scene". This is a pre-programmed sequence of actions designed to achieve a larger, multi-step goal. It orchestrates multiple individual device actions in a specific order.
-
Smart home example – A "Good Morning" routine with the following steps:
- Gradually brightening the bedroom lights.
- Opening the smart blinds.
- Starting the coffee maker.
- Adjusting the thermostat to a comfortable temperature.
- In Opal – A workflow agent orchestrates specialized agents to achieve a larger, more complex goal, interpreting natural language input to manage a sequence of actions.
Get started
Start customizing Opal by connecting your Optimizely products on the Product Connections page.
- Access the Optimizely Opal app.
- Click Settings > Product Connections.
- Expand the Optimizely product.
- Select the Optimizely instance checkbox.
- Click Save.
- Repeat steps 3 through 5 for your other Optimizely products.
See the Product connections section for more information.
When connections are in place, you can complete the following in Opal:
- Chat with Opal.
- Add instructions or edit prebuilt instructions to define how Opal should behave.
- Review system tools and create custom tools to integrate Opal with your external systems.
- Configure and run agents to execute tailored, complex tasks.
- Configure workflow agents to stitch together agents into a workflow.
Opal settings
Click Settings to configure your organization's Optimizely Opal instance.
Appearance
Go to Settings > Appearance to configure the Font Size and Theme for your Opal app experience. These settings are for your individual Opal instance only and do not affect other users in your organization.
Adjust the font size
Click on the Font Size drop-down list to update the font size Opal uses.
Adjust the theme
Click on the Theme drop-down list to switch between light and dark mode.
Chat
Go to Settings > Chat to configure Opal Chat for all users in your Opal instance.
Inference level
The inference level refers to how Opal interprets and processes your input to generate a response or complete a task. It is the degree of reasoning, creativity, and interpretation Opal applies to produce output.
To change the inference level used in Opal Chat, click on the Inference Level drop-down list and select a different level.
Options include the following:
| Inference level | Best for | Response style | Example user prompt |
| Quick | Simple questions or tasks. | Fast, basic responses. | Give me a short headline variation for this landing page. |
| Standard | Everyday tasks. | Reliable answers. | Summarize last week's web analytics report for the team newsletter. |
| Balanced | Everyday tasks needing more reasoning. | Reliable answers with additional reasoning. | Summarize last week's web analytics reports for the team newsletter. |
| Complex | Advanced planning and analysis. | Advanced reasoning and detail. | Build a step-by-step plan for A/B testing our checkout flow, including metrics to track and rollout strategy. |
| Pro | Toughest or most nuanced challenges. | Maximum reasoning depth. | Evaluate whether to run personalization or multivariate testing for our product recommendation carousel, taking into account traffic volume, statistical significance, and long-term revenue impact. |
| Code | Writes, explains, and debugs code. | Technical output (code or explanations). | Write a JavaScript snippet to trigger an Optimizely experiment on product detail pages when users scroll 50% down. |
Enable RAG in Chat
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) lets Opal access, understand, and query knowledge sources. By leveraging RAG, Opal can be informed by critical data such as campaigns, content, tests, and more to provide more contextual, accurate, and personalized responses. See Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) overview for more information.
You can control if RAG can be used in direct messages in Opal Chat. Agents can use RAG regardless of this setting.
To change the if RAG can be used in Opal Chat, toggle Enable RAG in Chat on or off.
Email domain
Go to Settings > Email Domain to set the email subdomain prefix Opal uses when it sends emails. Only one email domain is supported per Opal instance.
To configure the email domain, complete the following:
- Enter a valid subdomain prefix. Only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens are accepted. The subdomain must contain at least two characters and not start or end with a hyphen.
- Review the email address listed in the Preview. The Preview displays how emails are sent by this Opal instance.
- Click Save Domain.
Product connections
Go to Settings > Product Connections to manage where Opal is activated in your specific Optimizely products and instances. These connections let Opal access the data, tools, and features it needs to take action on your behalf. If a product instance is not connected, it cannot use Opal features. You should configure your connections first to ensure you can customize and fully use Opal across your Optimizely organization.
To add product connections, complete the following:
- Click on an Optimizely product to expand it.
- Select the product instances you want to connect.
-
Click Save.
- Repeat steps one through three for your other Optimizely products.
Allowlist Opal (optional)
If your firewall or security settings block Opal from scanning your URLs, add the following IP address to your allowlist:
34.173.58.19534.45.81.14634.58.63.9734.63.7.2434.70.231.3835.202.230.252
Best practices
- Confirm with your network or security team before making changes.
- Apply these IPs only to environments where Opal needs scanning access.
- Review your allowlist periodically to ensure it matches current Opal requirements.
Turn Opal on or off (optional)
Optimizely Opal is enabled by default. To disable Optimizely Opal, see Turn generative AI off across Optimizely applications.
View Opal usage
You can view Opal's usage across your organization in the usage and billing dashboards. See the Opal credits section in the Usage and billing dashboards documentation.
View Opal agent usage
You can view Opal agent usage by their agent IDs (@names) in the Opal agent usage dashboard. See the Optimizely Reporting for Opal documentation.
If you use Opti ID, administrators can turn off generative AI in the Opti ID Admin Center. See Turn generative AI off across Optimizely applications.
Please sign in to leave a comment.