Automations

Herald Chat

Herald answers residents' questions from your community's documents and records. Here's what it knows, where residents reach it, what you control, and how to keep its answers accurate.

Last updated September 25, 2026

Herald Chat is the AI assistant that answers resident questions about rules, dues, amenities and procedures. It draws on the documents you’ve uploaded and the sources you’ve switched on, so the better your library is, the better its answers are.

Where residents reach it

In the HomeHerald app, residents reach Herald from the Herald screen: the bar at the bottom of every screen opens it. They can hold to talk, or tap the typing bubble and type what they need. Typing is silent and never opens the microphone.

On your public community website, the Herald chat bubble answers visitors’ questions from the information you’ve published there. You switch it on or off in your community website settings.

What it can do

Herald can answer questions like:

  • “What are the pool hours?”
  • “Can I put up a fence?” (it pulls the matching covenant and cites it)
  • “What do I owe?” (a resident sees their own balance, never anyone else’s)
  • “When is the next event?”
  • “Is the clubhouse free Saturday?”
  • “Who’s on the board?”

It can also offer to do things for the resident: file a request, book or cancel an amenity reservation, pay dues, RSVP to an event, vote, or report a lost pet. Nothing is done until the resident taps to confirm. Herald sets up the card and the resident makes the decision.

What it won’t do

  • Make decisions about specific situations. It quotes the rule, and the board decides.
  • Show one resident another resident’s balance or records
  • Give legal advice or make binding commitments on the board’s behalf
  • Take an action without the resident’s tap

Setup

Automate → Configuration → Herald Chat card

Herald Chat is Always On. It has no on/off switch: what you control is what it knows. Residents who would rather email the board still can.

The screen has two tabs: Library and Logs.

The Library: what Herald knows

Governing Documents. Upload your CC&Rs, bylaws, rules and architectural guidelines, pick a category for each, and review the extracted text before saving. If you have a document as text instead of a file, use Or paste content manually. See the AI knowledge base article for details.

Board Pack - State HOA Law. State HOA law reference material, where your state is supported, plus links to your local ordinances.

Violation Rules. Short rules with a category, a title and a description. Be specific in the description, because the AI uses it to match complaints to the right rule.

Additional Sources. Switch on HOA Announcements and Neighborhood Issues so Herald can reference them, and add up to five External Websites for it to read (a city trash schedule, a utility’s outage page). Government and utility sites work best, and static pages work better than JavaScript-heavy ones.

Herald treats your documents as the truth. If a document is out of date, its answers will be too.

The Logs

AI Chat Logs (Admin Only) lists the typed questions and answers from HomeHerald’s chat windows, with a search by name, address or question. Use it to spot what people keep asking. Questions asked on the Herald screen are not listed here.

When Herald says something wrong

  • Fix the source: update or replace the document it quoted
  • Reach out to the resident directly with the correct information
  • If the wrong answer caused real harm (someone acted on it), apologize and make it right

Plan implications

Herald Chat is included in every HomeHerald plan at no extra cost.

Common situations

”Herald gave a resident the wrong pool rules”

  1. Update the pool rules document in the Library with clearer language
  2. Reach out to the resident with the right answer

”Residents keep asking the same questions”

That means it’s working: it’s catching questions that would otherwise be email. Use the pattern to:

  • Make the relevant document clearer
  • Send a community-wide announcement covering the question
  • Add an FAQ section to your community website

”A resident needs the board, not Herald”

Herald can file a request for them. Once they tap to confirm, it lands in your regular request queue. Residents can also contact the board directly at any time.

Where to go next