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Features

Talking to your agent

The chat, starting over, stopping a reply, and finding what was said.

On this page

Stop a reply partway#

Type stop, or press Stop under the reply, while your agent is working; what it already finished stays done and nothing more happens.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.5
Where it is
In the chat, the Stop button under the reply while your agent is working.
How to use it
  1. While your agent is working, press Stop, or send a message that says only stop.
From your phone
Archie Mobile has a Stop button too, and a message that says only stop works from a chat app.
Limits
  • Stopping does not undo what is already done, such as a row written or a draft made.
  • Typing cancel does not stop it.
  • On a shared agent, only the owner's stop stops it.

Tables and checklists in replies#

In Archie, your agent can answer with a table or a checklist when that is the clearer shape, and links and code show properly.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.1
Where it is
In the chat.
From your phone
On a chat app, Matrix draws a table, Telegram and Slack show it as a labeled list, and Discord, Signal and iMessage get a list instead.
Limits
  • Your agent writes a table only when every screen reading the conversation can draw one.
  • On Discord, Signal and iMessage your agent writes labeled lists instead of tables.

New chat#

Press New chat and your agent starts fresh. It forgets the conversation and keeps what it has learned about you.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.8
Where it is
At the top of an agent's Chat, beside Search and Copy chat. A New chat line in the conversation marks where it began.
How to use it
  1. Open your agent's Chat.
  2. Press New chat.
  3. Press Start a new chat.
From your phone
In Archie Mobile, press the New chat button at the top right of the Chat tab. Its chat also marks where each day begins. On a chat app, type /new.
Limits
  • The messages stay on screen to scroll back through. It is your agent that forgets them.
  • Any change your agent offered that you have not said yes to is dropped. Email drafts, reminders, and to-do ticks keep their buttons.
  • Only while the agent is running, and only in your own conversation.
  • Chat apps have no button. Typing /new there does the same thing.

Question cards keep their buttons#

The cards where your agent offers choices keep working for two weeks, even after Archie restarts, so a card from Friday still answers on Monday.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.8
Where it is
Under your agent's replies in Chat.
From your phone
Archie Mobile shows the same cards and buttons.
Limits
  • A reply draft's buttons last a day.
  • A conversation keeps its twenty newest cards. Pressing an older one gets "That's no longer current. Just tell me what you'd like."
  • Offers to watch a video somebody sent, or to import a file dropped in the chat, come off when the agent restarts.
  • New chat takes off the buttons only the cleared conversation could answer.

What your agent saved and looked at#

Under a reply, Archie says what your agent saved to your lists, with Open and Undo, and what it read to answer.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.8
Where it is
Under your agent's reply in Chat.
How to use it
  1. Press Open to see the list at that entry.
  2. Press Undo to take a save back, or Undo all when there were several.
From your phone
Archie Mobile shows the same line with Undo, and its Open goes to Lists. Chat apps show none of it.
Limits
  • It names saves to your lists, and reads of lists, documents, the calendar, mail, and Drive. Mail and Drive are named only by count.
  • It does not name reminders it set, calendar changes, mail it drafted or sent, or web searches. The Jobs tab is the full record.
  • The Read line names what each read returned, whether or not the answer used it. Press a list on it to open that list on just those entries.
  • When every list it read is empty, it says the answer is not from your records.

Ask your agent ordinary questions#

Your agent answers ordinary questions the way any AI chat does, such as how to word a hard email, in the same conversation as everything else it does.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.1.3
Where it is
On your agent's Chat tab.
From your phone
It answers the same way on your chat app and in Archie Mobile.
Limits
  • It can get things wrong. Archie says so under the message box: Archie can get things wrong. Check before you act on it.
  • Your question goes to your AI company, the same as every message.
  • Where an answer needs a file or a live fact, it prefers to look it up.
  • A brand new agent's first messages are its setup questions.

Your agent looks back through your conversation#

Your agent keeps the last twenty messages in front of it. Ask about something from further back and it searches your conversation for it.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.1
From your phone
Something you said on your chat app or in Archie Mobile is found the same way as something typed at your desk.
Limits
  • It searches the last 500 messages of your own conversation with that agent, and nothing older.
  • It matches words, so a question worded differently from what was said can miss. Then your agent says it no longer has it.
  • Only your own conversation. A guest's or a teammate's chat is never searched, and routines do not get it.

Search this chat#

Type a word or a name and Archie shows every message in your chat with an agent that has all of them, newest first. Press one to go to it.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.11
Where it is
On your agent's Chat tab, press Search at the top, or press Command F (Control F on Windows).
How to use it
  1. On your agent's Chat tab, press Search, or press Command F.
  2. Type a word or a name.
  3. Press a match to go to it in the chat.
From your phone
In Archie Mobile, the magnifying glass at the top of the Chat tab opens the same search, and an older match opens in the box.
Limits
  • It covers the newest 500 messages a chat keeps. When nothing matches, the box says how far back the chat goes.
  • It matches the words you type, so "plumber" does not find "the guy who fixed the sink".
  • It searches your chat with that agent only. Email, files, and anybody else's chat are never searched.
  • On a team, each person's search covers only their own chat.

Charts in the conversation#

Ask for a chart and your agent draws it in the conversation as bars, a line or a pie, with the numbers on it.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.11
Where it is
In the chat on your agent's Chat tab.
How to use it
  1. Ask your agent for a chart, for example "Chart my sales by month."
From your phone
Archie Mobile draws the same chart, and a chat app such as Telegram gets a short list of the numbers.
Limits
  • Three kinds: bars, a line, and a pie, one set of numbers each. A pie with more than five slices, or a number at or below zero, is drawn as bars.
  • On Telegram, Slack, Discord, Matrix and iMessage it comes as a short list of the numbers.
  • A chart is as right as the numbers your agent put in it. Copy gives the numbers, and there is no saving it as a picture.
  • There is nothing to press or zoom. On the computer, resting the pointer on a crowded line shows a hidden figure.

The Today line over the message box#

One line over the message box says what changed and what went out today, like "Today: 4 changes, 1 sent". Press it for the list, each change with Open and Undo.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.11
Where it is
Over the message box, in your chat with your agent.
How to use it
  1. Press the line to open the list.
  2. Press Open to see a change on its list, or Undo to take it back.
From your phone
On an iPhone, Archie Mobile shows the same line. There, Open goes to the list rather than the entry, and Show on a send works only while its card is still on the computer.
Limits
  • It lists what Archie recorded: changes made through Archie, by a chat, a card, an import, a routine or a teammate. Edits you type on the Lists screen yourself, and mail you send from your own mail app, are not on it.
  • Today is the day on the computer's clock.
  • Past 25 in one part, the rest are on the Jobs tab. Undo shows only where the Jobs tab has it.
  • A teammate's phone does not show the line.

Not now, answered at once#

Press Not now, No thanks, Skip or Cancel under something your agent offered, and Archie answers "Okay, left it." right away, without asking the AI, and drops what the card offered.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.11
Where it is
Under a card or a question your agent sent, in your chat with it.
How to use it
  1. Press Not now, No thanks, Skip or Cancel under the offer.
From your phone
A press in Archie Mobile is answered the same way by the computer, and the answer reaches your phone like any reply.
Limits
  • Only a press that just says no. A plain No that answers a question, or a no with more in it, like "Not now, remind me Friday", still goes to your agent.
  • Anything else waiting for your yes in that chat is dropped too, as your agent's own reply would drop it.
  • Any other button is a message like one you typed, and your agent answers it.
  • Not during your agent's first questions, whose buttons are answers about you.

Your presses, shown as presses#

A button you press shows on your side of the chat as that button, pressed, over the first words of the card it answered. Confirm says the change it confirms, and a press never changes your agent's words.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.11
Where it is
On your side of the conversation, in your chat with your agent.
From your phone
On an iPhone, Archie Mobile shows your press the same way. On Telegram, Slack and Discord the button you pressed stays on the card with a tick.
Limits
  • Cards Archie writes itself, like a reminder, a time to move, or an email or text draft, still change their own status line when pressed.
  • When a change has no short summary, Confirm says only what kind of change it applies.
  • A button that would ask for a second thing its label does not say is not offered. This matches words, so it can miss one.
  • On Telegram and Slack a ticked button can still be pressed. It says so and does nothing. Signal, iMessage and Matrix have no buttons.

Replies in your lists' own words#

Your agent names a change by the column's name on your list, like For. It says what it did, like "I looked it up online", and leaves out Archie's own words, such as skill and specialist. Who's Got This keeps its list as Who has what.

  • On your computer
  • Since 0.3.11
Where it is
In your agent's replies, and on the Who has what list that Who's Got This keeps.
Limits
  • Leaving out "skill" and "specialist" is what your agent is told. Nothing filters what it writes.
  • When a list is renamed in Archie's store, your copy takes the new name, unless you renamed it yourself.
  • A list whose columns you changed, but not its name, is still renamed.

Unasked messages wait for the answer#

Messages your agent sends without being asked, like the morning list, a card about new mail or a routine's report, wait until it has finished answering you.

  • On your computer
  • Since 0.3.11
Where it is
In your chat with your agent.
Limits
  • A message written once waits five minutes at most, then goes.
  • Reminders you set and replies you scheduled are not held. They go at the minute you asked for.
  • It waits only for an answer in the same chat.
  • It still arrives unasked, and a reminder can land in the middle of an answer.

Unasked messages say so#

When your agent sends something without being asked, a line over it says so and what it is, like "Sent on its own at 6:30 AM: your morning list."

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.11
Where it is
Over the message, in your own chat with your agent.
From your phone
On an iPhone, Archie Mobile shows the same line.
Limits
  • A routine is named by its name, and a reminder as "a reminder you set". A card from the mail or text watch says only "Sent on its own".
  • Your own chat in Archie and Archie Mobile only. A chat app has no such line, and a teammate's chat is not marked.

/pending moves waiting cards down#

Type /pending and everything still waiting on you is posted again at the bottom of the chat. The earlier copy says the newest card replaced it, and its buttons go.

  • On your computer
  • Since 0.3.11
Where it is
Type /pending in your chat with your agent.
How to use it
  1. Type /pending and send it.
Limits
  • Not on Signal or iMessage, which cannot change a message once it is sent. There the old copy stays, and a press on it is answered once.
  • Every copy of a draft is the same draft, so one already sent answers "Already handled."