AI Assistant

Ask about your project in the editor, review the edits the assistant suggests, and apply or reject them.

The assistant works on the project you have open. It reads your documents and suggests edits, and you apply or reject each edit. The answers in the screenshots are examples: what you get depends on the model your site uses.

If you see no AI assistant in the left bar, see AI Integration for your administrator.

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Start a chat

1. Open the assistant

   In the left bar of the editor, click AI assistant. The panel opens next to the editor.

2. Accept the terms

   The first time, the panel shows the terms for AI features. Click Accept and continue. You do this once, and it also covers the Error Assistant.

   

   The terms, shown once

3. Ask something

   Type in What would you like to do? and press Enter, or click the arrow. You can also click a suggestion under Start a chat. The suggestions change from one chat to the next, and Fix the compile errors joins them when the last compile has errors.

   

   An empty chat

4. Read the answer

   What the assistant did appears as lines in a box, such as Read line 15-16 of main.tex, with a check mark when the step is done. The answer follows. If the model shares its reasoning, click Reasoned for 1 s to read it.

   

   A question and its answer

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Ask about selected lines

Select lines in the editor. A label such as main.tex: 16 appears above the message box, and the selected text goes with your message. In an empty chat, the suggestions turn to the selection, such as Make it shorter.

A selected line

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Review a suggested edit

An edit does not go into your document until you apply it.

1. Read the suggestion

   A box called Edit line 16 shows the reason, the line number and the change: the old text is struck through and the new text is highlighted. The document has not changed yet. Show result shows only the new text, and Show diff goes back.

   

   An edit waiting for your decision

2. Apply it

   Click Apply. The change appears in the editor, the box gets a check mark and the assistant carries on. If the edit is in another document, that document opens.

   

   The edit is applied

3. Take it back if you change your mind

   Undo takes the change out of the document, and Apply puts it back. The assistant is not told about either.

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Reject an edit

Click Reject. The document stays as it is, the box says The user declined this edit. and the assistant carries on, knowing you declined. The buttons are gone, so to get the edit back, ask again.

If you write a new message instead of deciding, the edit is not applied and the box says so.

A rejected edit, and one left undecided

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What the assistant can do in a project

Only edits wait for you. The other steps run as soon as the assistant takes them.

The line in the chat	What it does
Read line 15-16 of main.tex	Reads lines of a document
Find “schedule” in main.tex	Looks for text in a document
List the project files	Lists the files of the project
Create appendix.tex	Creates an empty document and opens it
Edit line 16	Suggests an edit, see above
Compile	Compiles the project
Check the compile log	Reads the errors and warnings of the last compile
Look at PDF page 1	Shows a page of the PDF in the chat
Read the PDF structure	Reads the structure of the PDF
Switch to xelatex	Changes the compiler of the project, as in Settings
Search the web for “…”	Searches the web
Search the help pages for “…”	Searches the help pages

A new file, then an edit in another document

A compile and a page of the PDF

A search line shows how many results it found. Click it to list them. Whether the searches are available depends on your site, see Optional search services.

The results of a search

The Fix the compile errors suggestion asks the assistant to check the log and fix what it finds. Its fixes arrive as edits for you to review.

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Attach an image or a PDF

In the message box, click the picture icon, Attach image or PDF, and choose a file. Its name appears above your text. Write your message and send it.

A file attached to a message

The panel refuses other files with Only images and PDF files can be attached. and large ones with Files must be smaller than 2 MB.

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Stop the assistant

While the assistant works, the arrow in the message box becomes a Stop button. Click it. A running step ends with Stopped by the user. and nothing else happens until you write again.

The Stop button

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If the assistant stops by itself

The assistant can take a limited number of steps for one message. At the limit, the panel says The assistant used all the steps it may take for one message. Reply to let it carry on. Reply, for example with Go on, and it continues.

The step limit

If the panel says Something’s gone wrong, the request failed. Send your message again, or click Start new chat.

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Move the panel and start over

These buttons are at the top of the panel:

• Start new chat clears the panel. There is no list of earlier chats. Reloading the page clears the chat too.
• Move to the right puts the panel to the right of the PDF, where it stays open while you use the file tree. Move to the left puts it back. The chat stays.
• Close hides the panel. Click AI assistant in the left bar to bring it back, with the chat still there.

The panel on the right

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Token usage

The assistant does not show how many tokens you have used. If your site sets a limit and you reach it, your next message gets no answer. The panel shows Usage limit reached and how long until you can chat again, and the message box is greyed out.

The limit is reached

A new chat shows the same notice. After a reload the box looks normal again, but the next message gets the notice as well. The Error Assistant counts towards the same limit and shows Usage limit reached in the log entry.

Your administrator sets the limit, see Usage and reset.