How to test the KB and Customer Portal login flow (email verification)

Last updated: May 13, 2026

Overview

This guide walks you through testing the end-to-end login experience for your Knowledge Base and Customer Portal using email verification authentication. By creating a test contact and account, you can preview exactly what your customers see — including gated content and the chat widget.

Step 1: Create a contact for your personal email

  1. In Pylon, go to Contacts.

  2. Click Add contact.

  3. Enter your personal email address as the contact's email. This is the address you'll use to log in as a "customer" in a later step.

  4. Fill in any other required fields and save the contact.

Step 2: Create a dummy account and assign the contact

  1. Go to Accounts and click Add account.

  2. Give the account a test name (e.g. "Test Account — Internal").

  3. Open the account and navigate to the Contacts tab.

  4. Add the contact you created in Step 1 to this account.

The contact must be associated with an account for the Customer Portal to recognize them and show the correct scoped view. Make sure the customer portal is turned on and the contact has access to the customer portal (portal role is set correctly).

Step 3: Set up email verification authentication for your KB / Portal

  1. Go to Settings → Knowledge Base (or Settings → Customer Portal).

  2. Make sure both are turned on

  3. Make sure you have set customer authentication to Email (Workspace > Customer Authentication)

  4. Save your changes.

With email verification enabled, visitors to your KB or portal will be prompted to enter their email address and verify it via a code before accessing any gated content.

Step 4: Log in as the customer

  1. Open a private / incognito browser window (or a different browser entirely) to avoid your Pylon admin session interfering.

  2. Navigate to your Knowledge Base or Customer Portal URL.

  3. When prompted, enter the personal email address you used in Step 1 / Go through the login flow for the KB.

  4. Check your inbox for the verification email.

You are now browsing the KB / portal as that contact, scoped to the dummy account you created.

Step 5: Verify the customer experience

While logged in, you can confirm the following:

  • Gated articles or sections are visible (content that requires authentication).

  • The portal header shows the correct account name or contact details.

  • The ticket list (if enabled) is scoped to the dummy account.

Step 6: Test the chat widget

  1. While still logged in as the test contact in your incognito window, locate the chat widget icon (usually in the bottom right corner of the KB or portal page). If you don't see it, makes sure identify verification is enabled and the chat widget is enabled on both the KB and the customer portal.

  2. Click the widget to open it and send a test message.

  3. Switch back to your Pylon admin view and confirm the conversation appears in the issue queue, attributed to the test contact and account.

Cleaning up

Once testing is complete you can leave the dummy account and contact in place for future testing, or delete them from Accounts and Contacts respectively.