Who this is for. Super Admins maintaining an agent still on Collaborative Mode. See the Roles and Access.
Collaborative Mode is being deprecated. New setups should use Governed Autonomy. For more information, see Autonomy Models.
In Collaborative Mode, Vendor Categories decide which vendor segments get their own reply templates. Select a category here, and it appears as a tab in Agent Replies where you configure the templates for it.
This is a stronger dependency than the Governed Autonomy equivalent: the selection directly determines which template sets exist, so changing it after templates are written ripples into Agent Replies.
Select the Vendor Categories
On the Define capabilities step, select the AP Helpdesk tab.
In the left navigation, select Vendor Categories.
Select the checkbox for each category to enable, or select Select All. The count next to Select All shows how many are selected out of the total available. Standard Vendor is selected already and its checkbox is disabled, so it cannot be cleared.
Select Next.
Figure 1. Vendor Categories on the AP Helpdesk tab of Define capabilities.
Choose what to enable
Every enabled category is a full template set to write and maintain, one template per intent and reply scenario. Enabling six categories where two would do multiplies the template work threefold.
Enable a category when its vendors need reply wording that differs in substance. Standard Vendor covers the general case.
Apply Vendor Category changes to Agent Replies
Vendor categories and reply templates are coupled. Changing which categories are enabled does not update the templates in Agent Replies by itself. The change has to be applied there too.
Skipping the Agent Replies step leaves the configuration internally inconsistent: a category enabled with no reply wording behind it, or wording for a category no longer in play. Neither state announces itself. It surfaces later as a vendor receiving the wrong tone of reply, or none.
Apply the change
After changing your selection in Vendor Categories, read the message at the top of the section: category changes update your reply templates, so open Agent Replies to apply them before continuing.
Select Agent Replies in the message, or select Agent Replies in the left navigation.
Confirm that each newly enabled Vendor Category appears as a tab.
For each new tab, configure the templates per intent and reply scenario. For more information, see AP Helpdesk Agent Replies.
Figure 2. The warning on the Vendor Categories group.
Why the timing matters
A newly enabled Vendor Category without configured templates has no reply content for the Agent Co-worker to use, and nothing warns you at send time. The failure surfaces later, when a vendor in that segment writes in and the expected reply behavior is missing.
What to check per new tab
Select the intent from the Intent list and confirm templates exist for the reply scenarios your traffic actually produces, at minimum the found, not-found, and general-inquiry cases.
Read the Preview pane for each configured template.
Confirm language matching and attachments are set where the category needs them.
Clearing a category deletes its templates
Clearing a Vendor Category drops its templates from the set that is saved, and on save the service deletes any rule and template that is no longer in the payload, along with the category itself once nothing references it. Re-enabling the category later produces fresh default templates rather than restoring the old ones, so any wording you had written is gone. Note that a category can only be cleared while no vendors are assigned to it, and the default vendor category is never cleared by Select all.