How to ask the Agent a question

The Agent lives in a panel beside every page. Press the orb, a small moving ball of coloured dots, in the strip down the right edge of the screen (its tooltip reads Agent), type into Ask anything, or type / for skills, and press Enter to send. Shift+Enter starts a new line.

For what the Agent can reach, see What is the Agent?.

How do you open the Agent?

On a computer, press the orb at the top of the narrow strip on the right edge of any page, including Chat and Settings. In Chat, Agent under Agents at the top of the chat list opens the same panel. On a phone browser, the orb sits at the right of the top bar.

Press Close agent in the panel header to put the panel away. On a computer you can drag the panel's left edge to make it wider or narrower, and Tideswell remembers the width.

On a wide screen (1280 pixels and up) the panel docks beside the page and stays open as you move between pages, so you can keep reading an answer while you click through Tideswell. On a smaller screen it slides over the page and closes when you go to another page.

Closing the panel never loses your place. Reopen it and the same conversation is there, and an answer that was still arriving carries on while the panel is closed.

What does a new chat show?

"Ask about your work." with a row of topics underneath, such as Tasks, Sales and Purchase orders, and up to three questions for the topic you pick. Choosing a question puts it in the message box for you to change and send.

The topics follow the modules your workspace has switched on and what you can see. Skills, the digests and your own saved prompts are covered in How to reuse a question: starters, skills, digests and saved prompts.

What is behind the + button?

The + beside the message box opens a short menu:

• Skills, Actions and Saved prompts, under Browse. Actions lists what the Agent can change for you, grouped by area, and picking one starts the request in the message box for you to finish.
• Save as skill and Save as prompt, for what you have typed.
• Attach files, or drag files onto the panel. The Agent reads what you attach with your question.

An empty Actions list reads "No actions available to you yet." See How to approve, refuse or undo a suggested change for what happens when you ask for a change.

What happens when you ask?

You see the Agent work before any answer arrives. It shows Thinking, then a sentence about what it is about to do, then one row per step, such as "Reading sales", "Checking stock" or "Reading the help pages".

The answer then streams in as formatted text with headings, bullets and tables. Once it lands, the steps fold under a line such as Worked for 4s or 3 steps, and you can press that line to open them again.

Products it names appear as chips. Pressing one opens that product in your Shopify admin, in a new tab.

What can you do with an answer?

Three buttons sit under every answer:

• Copy copies the answer as text, ready to paste into a chat or an email.
• Helpful and Not helpful tell Tideswell how the answer landed. Press the same one again to take it back.

While an answer is arriving, the send button turns into Stop. Press it and the answer ends where it is, marked Stopped.

How does the page you are on come along?

When you have a record open, the Agent reads it with your question. A chip reading Using: and the record's name shows which one, so you can ask "what is blocking this?" without naming it.

This works on a task, a project, a document, a chat channel or thread, an outreach item, a customer, a supplier, a purchase order, a special order, a wholesale order, account or invoice, a record in one of your own Objects, and a workflow. Press the X on the chip to stop using that record in your questions.

For the full picture of asking about tasks, chat and documents, see How to ask the Agent about your tasks, chat and documents.

How should you phrase a question?

Like you would ask a colleague, with the comparison built in.

"How did we do last week" gets you a number. "How did we do last week against the week before, and what drove the difference at product level" gets you something you can act on.

Three habits improve answers:

• Name the period. Last 7 days, since the first of the month, the same week last year.
• Ask for the why, not just the what. Adding "and what is driving it" changes the shape of the answer.
• Ask for a ranking. "Ranked by size of the opportunity" turns a list into an order of work.

Can you ask follow-ups?

Yes. A conversation remembers the thread, so "and what about the week before" works without repeating the context.

That is usually the fastest way to work. Ask a broad question, then narrow it in two or three follow-ups rather than trying to write one perfect question.

Can the Agent make a change for you?

It can prepare one. Ask "make a task to chase Portside Mills on Friday" and it answers with a review card showing exactly what will change, which waits until someone approves it.

With the Brain module on and Agent approvals switched on for your workspace, it can prepare tasks, projects, records, purchase order changes, documents, decisions and a post in a channel. + › Actions lists what it can do for you.

Purchase order changes need View purchase orders and the buying calendar, and a decision needs View decisions. The card is covered in How to approve, refuse or undo a suggested change.

What are Chat and Inbox at the top of the panel?

Two views of the panel. Chat is your conversation with the Agent. Inbox holds the items the Agent has brought to you, such as a late-task check-in, with a count of the ones you have not read yet.

Your draft in the message box is kept while you look at the Inbox. See How to work through your Agent Inbox.

How do you find a past conversation?

Press History in the panel header. It lists your conversations, newest first, each with when you last used it, and an Updates row at the top. Press one to reopen it.

Press New chat (the pencil beside History) to start fresh. Conversations are yours alone, so nobody else sees what you asked. Updates is covered in How to read your updates and the daily brief.

Can the Agent remember how you like to work?

Yes. Open Brain › Memory and save a preference, such as "keep answers short" or "show money without pence". The page reads "What the agent remembers about how you like to work. Only you can see these."

1. Under Remember a private preference, type a Topic, such as Answer length.
2. Type the preference itself in the box below it.
3. Press Remember for me.

Each saved preference shows Correct and Forget. Correct asks for the Corrected preference and a Reason for correction, then Save correction.

The Memory row is in the menu whenever the Agent panel is. If saving says Agent memory is not enabled in this workspace, contact Tideswell to switch it on.

Can you make the panel bigger?

Yes, on a computer. Press Full screen in the panel header to give the conversation the whole window, and Exit full screen to put it back beside the page.

Why did it leave something out?

Four reasons, and each has a next step.

• Contact details. It says contact details are not shared in the agent. Open the customer directly instead, per How to find a customer and read their history.
• A permission you do not hold. Supplier details, order values, delivery costs and decisions each need their own view permission, and without it the answer goes ahead without them. Ask an admin about the permission rows listed in What is the Agent?.
• Something not connected. Klaviyo questions need Klaviyo connected and store questions need Shopify connected. It says so under What I checked rather than guessing. See How to connect your Shopify store and How to connect Klaviyo.
• A private channel. Once a conversation has read a private channel, it answers but does not suggest changes. Press New chat and ask for the change there.

Do you have to retype a question you ask often?

No. Press + beside the message box and choose Save as prompt, then reuse it from Use a saved prompt or by typing / in an empty box. See How to reuse a question: starters, skills, digests and saved prompts.