Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developer.watson-orchestrate.ibm.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

This page documents new features, enhancements, and updates for the embedded chat integration. Changes are listed in chronological order by release date. For information about new features and improvements to the watsonx Orchestrate product, see What’s new in IBM® watsonx Orchestrate®.
​
5 May 2026

​
New feature

​
Enhanced home screen customization

Enhanced the updateWelcomeScreen() method with expanded SVG icon format support and improved property behavior. The method now supports three SVG icon formats: base64-encoded data URLs (recommended), external URLs, and inline SVG strings. Added comprehensive documentation covering character limits, line capping behavior, Redux state persistence, and property handling (omitted vs empty string vs null values). For more information, see the documentation for updateWelcomeScreen() method.

​
Header customization for agent avatar and name

Added header.showAgentAvatar and header.showAgentName configuration parameters to let you hide the agent avatar and name in the embedded chat header. These parameters provide greater flexibility in customizing the chat interface appearance to match your website’s design requirements.Both parameters accept boolean values and default to true, so the agent avatar and name are shown unless you explicitly hide them:
  • header.showAgentAvatar Hides the agent avatar in the chat header when set to false.
  • header.showAgentName Hides the agent name in the chat header when set to false.
For more information, see Customizing the chat UI: Header.

​
Restart conversation event enhancements

Enhanced pre:restartConversation and restartConversation events with the interactionType property. This property identifies the source of the restart action, enabling better observability, analytics tracking, and downstream feature control.The interactionType parameter provides context about how the conversation restart was triggered:
  • restart_button - Restart triggered by clicking the Restart button in the header
  • new_chat_button - Restart triggered by clicking the New Chat button in the sidebar
  • instance_method - Restart triggered programmatically via the restartConversation() instance method
This enhancement allows developers to implement different behaviors based on the restart source, track user interactions more accurately, and provide context-aware experiences.

​
Documentation improvements

​
Event documentation updates for custom message state handling

Updated the documentation for pre:receive and pre:threadLoaded to clarify how to add custom properties to message_state.user_defined by using the spread operator to create a new object reference. Added notes and updated examples to describe how this approach helps preserve existing properties and avoid Object is not extensible errors in stricter environments.
​
13 April 2026

​
New features

​
Message translation support

Enhanced pre:send, pre:receive, and pre:threadLoaded events with message translation capabilities. These enhancements enable real-time translation of user messages and agent responses, allowing users to interact in their preferred language while the agent processes messages in English.
​
26 March 2026

​
New features

​
Streaming delta event

Added the pre:stream:delta event for real-time control over streaming responses. This event fires before each streaming delta chunk is processed and rendered, enabling you to inspect, modify, or suppress streaming content as it arrives. For more information, see the documentation for pre:stream:delta event.

​
Silent messages

Added support for silent messages in the send() method. Silent messages are sent to the agent but remain hidden from the chat UI, enabling cleaner user experiences for system notifications and background operations. For more information, see the documentation for send() method.

​
Load chat thread

Added the features.showThreadList configuration parameter to control the visibility of the chat history (thread list) in the side panel. This feature provides flexible control over conversation history display. For more information, see Customizing the chat UI: Features.Added the showSelectedAsTitle property for dropdown form elements in float and custom layouts. This property allows the detail view title to automatically update to display the text of the currently selected dropdown item, providing better context for users navigating form interactions. For more information, see the showSelectedAsTitle property details in updateCustomHeaderItems().
​
13 March 2026

​
Documentation improvements

​
Context variables

Added comprehensive Context variables documentation covering methods for passing additional information from your web application to agents:
  • Two implementation methods:
    • JWT token method: For stable and identity-related context such as user ID, role, and organization.
    • Instance methods (pre:send event): For dynamic and frequently changing context such as current page, form inputs, and selections.
  • Complete implementation examples:
    • Full JWT creation service with RS256 signing and user payload encryption
    • Simple and advanced context injection patterns using instance methods
    • Combined approach demonstrating both methods together
  • Agent configuration: Step-by-step setup including agent definition with context_access_enabled and context_variables list.

​
Instance methods

Enhanced the Instance methods documentation with comprehensive coverage of all chat instance methods:

​
Events

Enhanced the Events documentation with comprehensive coverage of all chat events: