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The moment it happens

Answer chat questions and take bookings into a sheet

Customers ask questions or book in your chat; questions are answered from your FAQ in Pinecone and bookings are added to your sheet.

Runs
The moment it happens
Apps
Google Sheets, Pinecone
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Pinecone read; sheet edit

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a customer message arrives at this link, work out if it's a question or a booking. Answer questions from my FAQ in Pinecone; for bookings, add the name, date, time and party size to my Bookings sheet and confirm. Send the reply back to the chat.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Restaurants, studios and small venues get the same messages all day: are you open on Sunday, do you have parking, can I book for four on Friday. Answering them takes staff away from customers in front of them, and bookings typed from chat into a diary go missing.

Small hospitality and service businesses use it to answer common questions instantly and capture bookings in a sheet the whole team can see.

What you get out of it

  • Instant answers at any hour

    Common questions are answered from your FAQ, even when you are closed.

  • Bookings land in one place

    Each booking becomes a row in the shared sheet, with name, date, time and party size.

  • Fewer typing mistakes

    Details go straight from the customer's message into the sheet.

  • Customers get a confirmation

    The chat replies to confirm what was booked.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. When a customer sends a message, your chat tool forwards it to your automation's link.

  2. AI decides whether it is a question or a booking and picks out any booking details.

  3. Questions are answered from your FAQ in Pinecone; complete bookings are added to your sheet.

  4. The answer or booking confirmation is sent back to the chat.

Before it runs live

  • Connect your Google Sheets account and pick the spreadsheets it may use
  • Connect Pinecone
  • Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens
Answer chat questions and take bookings into a sheetjust nowSucceeded
Google Sheets · BookingsDana Lee · 2026-10-24 · 19:30 · 4 · booked via chat

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Google Sheets and Pinecone steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
chat_q_and_a_and_bookings_with_answers_from_pinecone_records_in_sheets.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_event, credentials, http, ai

SHEET_ID, REPLY_URL = "your-spreadsheet-id", "https://chat.example.com/api/reply"
SCHEMA = {"type": "object", "properties": {k: {"type": "string"} for k in ["intent", "name", "date", "time", "party", "missing"]}}
HOST, NS = "https://kb-abc123.svc.aped-1234.pinecone.io", "faq"  # your index host and namespace
def search(text, k=5):
    r = http.post(f"{HOST}/records/namespaces/{NS}/search", json={"query": {"inputs": {"text": text}, "top_k": k}}, headers={
        "Api-Key": credentials.secret("PINECONE_API_KEY"), "X-Pinecone-API-Version": "2025-04"}).json()
    return [h["fields"] for h in r["result"]["hits"]]

@on_event
def handle(event):
    body = event.json or {}
    msg = str(body.get("message", ""))[:1000]
    b = ai.generate(f"Is this a 'question' or a 'booking'? For a booking, extract name, date (YYYY-MM-DD), time, party size, and "
                    f"list any missing fields in 'missing'.\n{msg}", json_schema=SCHEMA, max_output_tokens=150).json
    if b.get("intent") == "booking" and not b.get("missing"):
        build("sheets", "v4", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False) \
            .spreadsheets().values().append(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range="Bookings!A:E", valueInputOption="RAW",
                                            body={"values": [[b["name"], b["date"], b["time"], b["party"], event.received_at[:16]]]}).execute()
        reply = f"Thanks {b['name']}, you're booked for {b['party']} on {b['date']} at {b['time']}."
    elif b.get("intent") == "booking":
        reply = f"Happy to book that. Could you tell me your {b['missing']}?"
    else:
        faq = "\n".join(h["chunk_text"] for h in search(msg, 3))
        reply = ai.generate(f"Answer briefly using only this FAQ, or say we'll get back to them:\n{faq}\nQ: {msg}", max_output_tokens=150).text
    http.post(REPLY_URL, json={"session_id": body.get("session_id"), "text": reply})
    return {"intent": b.get("intent")}

FAQ

Common questions

Does it check availability?
This version records requests in the sheet and confirms receipt. Ask for a check against a capacity column if you want it to decline full slots.
What if details are missing?
The reply asks for the missing piece, such as the time, and nothing is added until the booking is complete.
Which chat tools work?
Any chat widget or messaging tool that can send messages to a web link and accept replies at a link.
What permissions does it need?
Pinecone read; sheet edit. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run for each event the app sends.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Answer chat questions and take bookings into a sheet” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.