Create your account
Sign up with your email — no password. We send a magic link; click it and you're in. Google, Microsoft, and passkeys work too. You start on the free plan, no card needed.
Getting started
From sign-up to live AI chat — in ~10 minutes.
No developer needed. Create your account, prove you own your website, drop in one line of code, and you're live. Every step is below — and it's all self-serve.
Watch
The 3-minute walkthrough
Prefer to watch? Here's the whole setup, start to finish.
Video walkthrough coming soon
The written steps below cover everything in the meantime.
Step by step
Set it up
Do these in order. Verifying your domain (step 3) is the one everything else depends on.
Choose "I run a website"
We'll ask how you're using OrcaLinq. Pick "I run one or more websites" — that makes you the owner and takes you to the domain step.
Add & verify your domain the important one
Add your website (e.g. mystore.com), then prove it's yours with any one of these. We also show your widget key (chat_…) — copy it; it's shown once.
- DNS TXT (recommended): add a TXT record — name
_aichat-verify.mystore.com, valuev=aichat;t=YOUR_TOKEN— then click Check now. - Meta tag: add
<meta name="aichat-verification" content="YOUR_TOKEN">to your homepage<head>. - File: upload a file containing
v=aichat;t=YOUR_TOKENto/.well-known/aichat-verification/YOUR_TOKEN.txt. - Widget already running: install the widget first (step 4), then let us detect it — no DNS, tag, or file needed. (Best for password-protected Shopify dev stores.)
Keep it verified: we re-check periodically. If a domain ever shows suspended, open it and click Verify again — DNS-TXT is the most reliable.
Install the widget
Add the one-line snippet, placed just before </head>. Replace chat_YOURKEY with your own widget key — everything else is already correct:
<script async src="https://api.orcalinq.com/w.js"
data-tenant="chat_YOURKEY"
data-api="https://api.orcalinq.com"></script>Prefer not to type it? Domains → Installation in your dashboard shows the same snippet with your key already filled in.
On WordPress use our plugin, on Shopify the app embed, and on custom or static sites a one-line snippet — see the install guides. It's tiny (~2.5 KB) and the full chat only loads when a visitor clicks, so your site stays fast.
Confirm it's working
Open your site in a private window — the chat bubble appears within ~2 seconds and the AI answers from your content. Your dashboard flips to "detected." Not showing? Use Domains → Installation → Diagnose — it fetches your page and tells you the exact cause.
Connect a channel optional
Want real conversations to reach your phone? Connect Telegram (fully supported, one field: a BotFather token) or WhatsApp and others. You always use your own accounts. See channels.
Add your team optional
Teammates who'll answer handed-off chats join with a code: they grab it from the Agent Portal, you paste it, they confirm.
If something's off
Quick troubleshooting
- Bubble not appearing? Check in a private window, then run Domains → Installation → Diagnose. Usual causes: snippet not in
<head>, the placeholder key left in, or www-vs-non-www mismatch (add both). More: where exactly<head>is. - "Domain mismatch"? The key belongs to the exact domain you added — verify the one the site actually runs on.
- Domain "suspended"? Click Verify again; DNS-TXT recovers reliably. See adding the TXT record.
- Lost your widget key, or the snippet shows
YOUR_API_KEY? Read the key back off your own live page instead of pressing Rotate — how to recover it safely. - AI keeps giving the same short "we're overloaded" reply? You've hit your plan's daily AI limit. Upgrade, or ask us to raise the cap, or wait for the reset at 00:00 UTC. Adding your own AI key does not lift the daily limit — the counter is a platform-side cap, not a billing one. Full decoder: the same short reply to everything.
- Shopify verification fails on a password gate? Use the "Widget already running" method instead — which method do I need?
- Nothing ever reaches a person? Being listed on My Alerts is not the same as being reachable. Work through alerts are not arriving.
Ready in ten minutes.
Start free — no card. Verify your domain, drop in one line, and your AI front desk is live.