How does search by photo work?
A visitor sends a picture of an item they like and the agent shows the most similar products in your store. Available only on WooCommerce stores.
How it works
The visitor picks “Add image” from the + button in the chat box and sends a photo. The agent shows the products most similar to the item in the photo as cards.
For this, you index your product images once. AI describes each product's images and turns them into a fingerprint that can be compared. The visitor's photo is described the same way and the closest products are found.
If you haven't indexed your products, visitors can still send an image. But then the agent turns the item in the photo into a short description and searches by words, so results are less accurate.
On Shopify and Magento stores, the add-image button isn't shown.
Setup
- In WordPress, go to WooCommerce → Agenola Agent and, in the “Search by photo” section, press “Index products” and confirm.
- Indexing runs in the background; you can leave the page. Progress is shown as “N / M products indexed”. It may take a few minutes depending on the number of products.
- After that, products you add or whose images you change are indexed automatically.
WooCommerce must be on in the AI Assistant step's “Integrations” tab. In the agent created when you connect your store, it already is.
Cost and your data
- Indexing uses credits: each product's images (up to four per product) are described by AI. The spend appears under “Product image indexing (search by photo)” on the “Spending” tab of the “Plan” page. Examining an image a visitor sends is added to that conversation's spend.
- Product images are not stored by Agenola. The fingerprint and a short description stay on your site, next to the product.
- The image a visitor sends isn't stored either; the conversation record only marks that an image was sent.
If the results aren't what you expect
- Search by photo looks for similar items, not exact copies: different products in the same color and cut may show up too.
- If progress has stopped, keep the WooCommerce → Agenola Agent page open. Some servers have background jobs turned off; then indexing only moves while this page is open.
- “Stop” stops indexing and the automatic indexing of new products. Pressing “Index products” again continues where it left off.
- To start over, press “Reset index”. Indexed products are cleared and you need to index again.
Related articles
- How do I connect my WooCommerce store?Install the Agenola plugin on WordPress and connect your store; the agent then reads products from your store.
- How do I set up the AI Assistant step?Build an agent that answers free questions using a system prompt, a model, the knowledge base, tools and integrations; set handoffs and limits.
- How the agent finds its answersWhat the agent answers from, what it does when it doesn't know something, and how to fill the gaps.