Ask questions in chat

Use chat to ask questions, understand a document, or investigate information in Tale. The assistant can search accessible knowledge and read public pages. Start with a specific question, then use follow-up messages to narrow the answer.

Send your first message

Open Home. On a computer, it reopens the chat you last read, if there is one. To begin a new subject, choose New chat at the top of the Home list or, on a computer, choose Home again while it is active. Type in the message field. Press Enter to send or Shift+Enter for a new line. A starter prompt fills the same role as your own first question; edit your request to include the source, subject, and kind of answer you need.

For example: “Find the onboarding feedback and summarize the three most common problems. Cite the documents and separate reported problems from your suggestions.”

If your organization turned on a confidentiality notice, it appears under the message field as a reminder of what not to share in chat.

While the reply streams, the send control becomes a stop control. Stopping keeps the text already received, which may end mid-sentence. Use a follow-up message to clarify the question or ask for missing detail.

Choose a model when the choice matters

The model picker starts on Auto when several usable models are available. Auto selects a model for each message from your organization’s available models; organization rules can set a default or restrict the choices. The details under a reply identify the model that actually answered.

Pick a named model when you need consistent comparisons or know which model the work requires. Your choice stays selected until you change it, including which provider serves the model when two providers offer the same one. If that model supports adjustable reasoning, the picker also offers an effort setting. More reasoning can take longer; it is not a substitute for checking the answer.

If no models are available, ask an admin to check active provider credentials and model access. Models explains how the catalog is built.

Give the assistant the right sources

Choose the conversation’s location before asking about files:

Project chat also receives the project’s standing instructions. File access is enforced by Tale, so asking a project chat to read a different project does not grant access. Trashed or expired files are not searchable.

Use attachments for material needed in this conversation, project files for recurring project work, and Knowledge for shared reference material. The assistant retrieves content when it needs it; uploading a document does not mean every answer has read it.

Questions about Tale itself need no upload: the assistant looks up the public documentation at docs.tale.dev before explaining how a screen or setting works. If the server cannot reach docs.tale.dev, for example on a self-hosted installation without internet access, the timeline shows a failed reading step and the answer is not grounded in the documentation. The documentation describes the latest release, so the assistant points out when your workspace may differ.

Check what the assistant used

Above the reply, the timeline shows search and reading steps. A failed step explains what could not be read; it is useful evidence when an answer is incomplete. Expand the thinking section when one is available, but judge factual claims against sources rather than the fluency of that explanation.

Sources below the answer lists documents and pages the assistant loaded. Open a source and check that it supports the relevant claim. A citation establishes which material was used, not that every conclusion is correct. A reply without a retrieval step may rely on the model’s prior knowledge.

The assistant can search workspace information such as documents, knowledge entries, websites, contacts, products, accessible tasks, and the Inbox conversations you can see, including the text of the emails they received and of their attachments. A task can be named by its key, such as DOCS-12, as the board shows it. It can fetch the details behind a result and read a public web page. Chat does not run code, change connected systems, produce file deliverables, or use skills; assign that work to a project task.

Continue, copy, or keep the conversation

Use the reply toolbar to copy an answer, give feedback, inspect its details, or fork a conversation at that point. A fork lets you try another direction while preserving the earlier exchange.

Find earlier chats in Home; Chats above the list hides your tasks and inbox conversations. Pin frequently used chats, give a chat a recognizable title, or move it into a project when the topic becomes ongoing work: drag it onto the project or choose Move to project… in its menu. Shared chats explains how to publish a read-only snapshot for colleagues.

Very long conversations may exceed the model’s context window. Tale displays a notice when older messages are omitted. Restate an important requirement or start a new chat with the relevant sources instead of assuming the assistant still sees the entire history.

Improve an incomplete answer

For a guided example with source checking, follow Chat effectively.