# Assistant

Assistant is an AI-powered sidebar that works within the context of your conversations. Unlike [prompts](https://missiveapp.com/docs/ai/using-ai/prompts) (which run a single action), assistant can search, reason, and take multiple steps to help you.

## What assistant can do

<table><thead><tr><th width="267.7933349609375">Capability</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Read full conversation context</strong></td><td>Assistant sees all emails, internal chat messages, and notes in the current thread.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Search your emails</strong></td><td>Find relevant messages across all your connected email accounts.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Check your calendar</strong></td><td>Look up your availability, upcoming events, and scheduling conflicts.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Look up contacts</strong></td><td>Pull contact details from your address book.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Find canned responses</strong></td><td>Search your team's canned responses for relevant information.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Draft and edit replies</strong></td><td>Write reply drafts you can review and send, or refine text you've already written.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Ask clarifying questions</strong></td><td>When your request is ambiguous, assistant asks follow-up questions instead of guessing.</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Using the assistant

Open the assistant sidebar by clicking the AI icon in the conversation toolbar, or use the command bar (<kbd>⌘/Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>K</kbd>) and search for "Assistant".

Type your message and press **Enter**. The assistant responds in the sidebar, and you can continue the conversation back and forth.

### Picking a model

Use the model dropdown at the top of the sidebar to choose which AI model to use. You'll see models from all connected providers.

Select **Auto** to let Missive pick the best available model, or choose a specific model if you prefer.

You can switch models mid-conversation. The assistant keeps the conversation context when you do.

## Session types

### Conversation assistant

When you open the assistant from within a conversation, it's linked to that thread. It has full context: every email, chat message, and note in the conversation.

This is the most common way to use the assistant. Ask it to summarize the thread, draft a reply, or look up information. It already knows what you're talking about.

### Private sessions

Start a private session when you want to use the assistant without linking it to a specific conversation. Private sessions are standalone AI chats.

Open a private session from the command bar or from the assistant sidebar when no conversation is selected.

## Adding context with @

The assistant is smart enough to search your emails, calendar, and canned responses on its own when you ask. But you can also provide context explicitly using the **@** menu in the input field. This gives you precise control over what the assistant sees.

Type **@** to open the context menu. You can attach:

<table><thead><tr><th width="267.875732421875">Context</th><th>What it adds</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Current conversation</strong></td><td>The full thread you're viewing (emails, chat messages, notes). Added automatically when you open the assistant from a conversation.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>A specific conversation</strong></td><td>Any conversation from your recent history. Useful for cross-referencing threads.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Calendars</strong></td><td>Your calendar events from Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. You can attach all calendars or a specific one.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Responses</strong></td><td>Your team's canned responses. Attach all of them or pick a specific one to give the assistant access to your templates and policies.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Labels</strong></td><td>Shared organization labels or IMAP mailbox labels from your email accounts.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Mailboxes</strong></td><td>Unified mailboxes like All Mail, Inbox, or Sent.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Teams</strong></td><td>Team inboxes from your organizations.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Accounts</strong></td><td>Personal or shared email and social accounts connected to Missive.</td></tr></tbody></table>

Use <kbd>⌘/Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>1</kbd>, <kbd>2</kbd>, <kbd>3</kbd> to jump between sections in the context menu.

### Why context matters

The more relevant context the assistant has, the better its output. You can provide context in two ways:

1. **Attach it with @.** Pin exactly the data you want the assistant to work with. This is immediate and uses no extra processing.
2. **Ask for it in natural language.** Say "search my emails for previous conversations with this customer" and the assistant will use its search tools. This is flexible but takes an extra step.

Combining both is the most effective approach. Attach the conversation you're working on, then ask the assistant to go find what it needs.

### Example

You're replying to a customer and want a thorough, informed response. Attach `@Current conversation`, then type:

{% hint style="info" %}
Reply to the customer. Search for any previous emails they've sent us to understand their history with us. Also check our canned responses for any relevant policies or templates.
{% endhint %}

The assistant will read the full thread you attached, search your email accounts for past conversations with that customer, search your canned responses for relevant information, and draft a reply that takes all of it into account.

## Tips

**Be specific.** Instead of "write a reply", try "draft a polite reply declining the meeting and suggesting next week instead."

**The assistant remembers context within a session.** You can build on previous messages. Say "make it shorter" or "now translate that to French" without repeating your original request.

**Long sessions are compressed automatically.** When a session's conversation history grows very long, the assistant compresses older context to stay within model limits. You'll see a brief "Compressing…" indicator when this happens. The session continues uninterrupted.

**Use prompts for repetitive actions.** If you run the same instruction often (like "fix grammar" or "translate to Spanish"), create a [prompt](https://missiveapp.com/docs/ai/using-ai/prompts) instead. Prompts are faster for single-shot actions.

{% hint style="info" %}
Only one person can interact with an assistant session at a time. The lock auto-expires after 10 minutes of inactivity.
{% endhint %}