Set up the doc site assistant

The AI assistant answers your readers' questions in plain words, using only the pages you published, and links each answer to the pages it came from. This article covers turning it on, the settings, the starter questions and the monthly answer limit.

Before you start#

• The assistant is on every plan, including Free. Your plan sets how many answers your workspace gets each month (see Monthly answers).
• Answers cost no credits. They come out of the monthly answers only.
• To change the settings you need to be the workspace owner, an admin or an editor.
• Settings, like the rest of the site, reach readers when you publish.

Turn on the assistant#

The assistant is off on a new site.

1. Open the assistant settings#

   Open your doc site and go to Settings → AI assistant. You can also open Insights → Assistant and click Turn on.

2. Switch it on#

   Turn on Show the assistant. Readers then see Ask AI in the header, on the home page and in search.

   

3. Choose what happens when it can't answer#

   Under When it can't answer, pick Contact page, A link or Nothing. See The settings.

4. Save and publish#

   Click Save, then publish the site. The Ask AI button appears on the live site with that publish.

The settings#

All of these are on Settings → AI assistant. While Show the assistant is off, the other rows are greyed out.

When it can't answer options:

The contact form itself is set up under Settings → Feedback & contact. See Collect reader feedback and messages.

What readers see#

• Ask AI in the header, on the home page and in search. When search finds nothing, readers are told they can ask the AI assistant instead.
• Ask AI about this page on an article, which opens the chat with a question about that page.
• A chat panel with a few starter questions (Try asking), a question box (up to 2,000 characters) and New chat.
• Answers with numbered Sources that link to your pages, and the line "AI can make mistakes. Check the sources."
• Copy answer, Good answer and Bad answer under each answer. Ratings show up in Insights → Assistant.

How the assistant answers:

• It uses your published pages only. Drafts, unpublished changes and pages you hid from the navigation are left out. Site pages such as About, FAQ or legal pages are used too.
• It replies in the language the reader writes in.
• It remembers the last few messages of the conversation, so readers can ask follow-up questions.
• When the docs don't cover a question, it says so instead of guessing, and shows what you chose under When it can't answer.

Starter questions#

Starter questions are the suggestions in an empty chat, under Try asking. Their answers are prepared ahead of time, so a reader who clicks one gets the answer at once and it doesn't count toward your monthly answers.

You manage them on Insights → Assistant, in the Try asking card:

• Each site language has its own list of up to 6 questions. Readers see the first 4.
• Clevera rewrites the list once a day from what readers ask and search for. A new site starts with "No suggestions yet" until readers start asking; you can add your own right away.
• Add a question, Edit and Remove change the list. Pin keeps a question through the daily refresh; pinned questions come first.
• Regenerate writes a new set now.
• Changes reach readers at the next publish.

Monthly answers#

Each workspace gets a number of assistant answers per month, shared by all its doc sites. The count resets on the 1st of each month (UTC).

Some answers don't count:

• Clicking a starter question.
• Answers served from the answer cache: when a reader opens a new chat with a question that was already answered recently, they get the same answer and it isn't counted.
• Questions the assistant couldn't answer because of an error.

Limits that protect your answers from one busy site or one reader:

You can follow the count in two places:

• Settings → AI assistant → Monthly questions: "Included in" your plan, the reset date, and how many questions are used.
• Insights → Assistant: the Answers this month meter, with "Almost used up" from 90%, "Used up" at 100%, and how many answers came from the cache. Raise cap shows the plans with more answers.

When the limit is reached#

• Readers who ask a question see "The assistant isn't available right now. Search the docs instead." Search keeps working.
• Insights → Assistant shows "AI answers are paused until" the reset date, with Upgrade.
• The assistant comes back on the 1st of the next month, or as soon as you move to a plan with more answers. When one site reaches its daily share, the assistant on that site comes back the next day (UTC).

Usage notifications#

The workspace owner and admins get the usage notifications; owners, admins and editors get the one about unanswered questions. You can change the channels in your notification settings.

You get each usage notification once a month.

Review conversations#

Insights → Assistant shows what readers asked, for the date range you pick:

• Conversations, Answered (the share answered from the docs, compared with the previous period) and Rated helpful.
• The Conversations list, newest first. Filter it by All, Not covered (the assistant couldn't answer from the docs), Rated down or Rated up, or search the messages. Open one for the full transcript with every answer and its sources.
• Unanswered questions: "What the docs couldn't answer — write these next". Write article starts a new article from the question.

See Read doc site insights for date ranges and how long history is kept on each plan.

Troubleshooting#

Related#