> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.slatecx.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.slatecx.com/concepts/slates.md).

# Slates

### So what is a Slate exactly?

It's a persistent workspace that maintains the history of the relationship between a prospect and your company. As the prospect conducts research, cards are added to their slate and build up over time.

Integrated directly into each Slate is a conversational agent. The prospect can chat with the SlateCX agent via text or voice and the agent will dynamically drive the conversation to show content or guide towards specific goals defined by the company.

Once a prospect has a slate you can push content to it via HubSpot workflows.

Because a Slate is persistent it can be shared with other people (for example other team members in the prospects company).

### Why is it called a 'Slate'?

A Slate is an old term for a 'writing board' in a classroom (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_(writing)>) . &#x20;

Hence the phrase 'lets start with a blank slate'.  Because a Slate is totally customized to each prospect and is theirs to return to, the name seems to fit well.

### What can a Slate contain?

A Slate holds a prospects cards, their conversation, and their participants.

### How do i create Slate?

A Slate is created when a prospect arrives through an entry point.

There are quite a few different types of entry points that you can attach to your SlateCX campaigns:

1. A chatbot/voicebot style widget
2. A desktop browser experience
3. A QR code
4. A button attached to an email

### What is meant by an 'Engaged Slate'?&#x20;

Marketers typically care about engagement with prospects.

You can create slates and send them to prospects but if the prospect does nothing with the slate it is not considered to be engaged.

Only when a prospect actually uses a slate to do something does it become engaged. For example, they could ask a question or watch a video or scroll through a PDF.

A Slate is considered engaged if the prospect has used the slate during the monthly billing period.

If a prospect doesn't use a Slate in the following month the same Slate is considered no longer engaged.

Engaged slates are they key billing metric for SlateCX and you will be able to see your Engaged Slate count in the billing option in the main side menu.

## Conversations

When somone is invited to a Slate each participant has their own agent chat thread. If you share a Slate with someone they can see the cards are shared on the Slate but text and voice messages are not shared. They can have their own conversation with the Slate agent and add cards to the Slate.

## Saving and sharing

Slates can be both Saved and Shared.  When you save a Slate the prospect will need to provide an email address. This is often the point at which a prospect becomes known in HubSpot and a corresponding HubSpot contact record will be created. &#x20;

Once a slate is saved it can be shared with other people via the sharing link.  Or a share link can be created and posted into Slack or MS Team so that other members of the prospects team can join the slate.

## Team chat

When people join a slate a small icon will show in the top right hand corner. They can post messages to other team members and essentially chat with each other directly on the slate.

## See also

* [Entry points](/concepts/entry-points.md)
* [The agent](/concepts/the-agent.md)