Categories
Overview
Categories organize the products in the Sales Catalog into a hierarchy with parents and children. A good category structure has two benefits: your team finds products quickly, and you can scope an AI agent to a branch of the tree — ideal when an agent serves a specific segment of your business (for example, only "Home care" and all its sub-categories).
How to Access
- Navigate to Sales Catalog > Settings > Categories (
/sales/settings#categories). - Also available at the direct route
/sales/categories. - Required role: Administrator.
Interface Overview
The screen shows the category tree: each node can contain sub-categories. Next to each node you'll see:
- The name of the category and the number of direct products.
- Per-node actions: Add child, Edit, Archive.
- A top Add category button to create root categories.
If you don't have any categories yet, you'll see an informational panel with an Add category button to create the first one.
Features & Actions
Create a root category
What it does: Adds a category at the top level of the tree (no parent).
Steps:
- Click Add category at the top.
- Fill in the form:
- Name (required)
- Slug (optional, a short identifier for URLs and integrations)
- Icon URL (optional)
- Position (visual order)
- Confirm that the Parent stays "No parent (root)".
- Click Save.
Create a sub-category
What it does: Adds a category as a child of an existing one.
Steps:
- Locate the parent category in the tree.
- Click its Add child action.
- The modal shows "Will be created under:
{parent name}". - Fill in name, slug, icon, and position.
- Click Save.
Edit a category
What it does: Changes the name, slug, icon, position, or parent of an existing category.
Steps:
- Click the Edit action on the node.
- Modify the fields.
- If you change the Parent field, you move the category — and all of its sub-categories — to the new location in the tree.
- Click Save.
Archive a category
What it does: Hides the category from the picker without removing the products assigned to it.
Steps:
- Click the Archive action on the node.
- Confirm in the dialog.
Important notes:
- A category with active products cannot be archived. First move, archive, or discontinue those products.
- Archived products that had the category keep the identifier, but the category stops appearing in the picker. Un-archiving the category makes it available again.
- Archiving is not deletion: nothing is removed from history.
Fields Reference
| Field | Description | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Category name | Yes | Visible in the tree and the picker |
| Slug | Short identifier | No | Useful for URLs and external integrations |
| Icon URL | Icon shown next to the name | No | Public URL to an image |
| Position | Order among siblings | No | Numeric; lower comes first |
| Parent | Parent category | No | Empty = root |
Important Notes
- Each product belongs to a single category (or none). If you need a product to appear in multiple dimensions, use Custom properties instead of duplicating products.
- The per-agent scope operates on the tree: if you restrict an agent to "Home care", it sees every product in that category and all of its sub-categories.
- Reorganizing the tree (moving a parent) keeps every product assigned to the sub-categories.
FAQ
Q: How many levels can I nest? A: There's no hard practical limit, but we recommend no more than 3-4 levels so both your team and the AI agent navigate fluidly.
Q: What happens to products if I delete — or archive — a category? A: Categories are not deleted, they are archived. Products keep the archived category identifier. When you un-archive, they appear normally again.
Q: How do I restrict an agent to a category? A: From Aurora AI > Knowledge Base > Sales Catalog in the agent, choose the scope category. See AI agent integration.
Q: Does the AI agent's search respect the hierarchy? A: Yes. When an agent is restricted to a branch, its results are limited to the entire sub-tree — not just the exact category — regardless of how the customer phrases the question.