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Amruth Pillai
3e7849e51f
Keep manual preparation available without provider credentials. Share bounded search and reading across Applications and the assistant with one selected Firecrawl, Tavily, or Exa connection. Backfill encrypted Firecrawl credentials without decrypting or removing legacy rows. Add nullable posting-source metadata to applications.
170 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
170 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: "Using the assistant"
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description: "Ask the AI assistant to improve your resume or cover letter, then accept or reject each edit it proposes. Nothing changes until you accept."
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---
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The assistant is an AI chat panel beside your document in the editor. It reads the resume or letter you have open, and the job posting when the document is linked to an application, then suggests changes as edits you accept or reject one at a time. It never changes your document on its own.
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## Before you start
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Connect an AI provider with your own API key. See [Connecting an AI provider](/guides/using-ai). If you open the assistant before connecting one, it offers to connect one on the spot.
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## Open the assistant
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In the editor, select **Assistant** (the sparkle button) in the editor bar, just before **Share**, or press <kbd>⌘</kbd> <kbd>J</kbd> (<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> <kbd>J</kbd> on Windows and Linux). Press it again, or select **Close the assistant** (×) in the panel, to close it.
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<Frame caption="The assistant beside a resume, ready for a first request">
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<img
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src="/images/guides/using-the-assistant/assistant-beside-the-page.webp"
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alt="Resume editor with the Assistant panel open on the right, showing What should we work on? and three suggestions: Find weak bullets, Tighten to one page and Draft a summary"
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/>
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</Frame>
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On wide screens the assistant opens as a third column. On smaller laptops it takes the place of the left panel, on tablets it slides in as a drawer, and on phones it fills the screen.
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You can also reach it from elsewhere:
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- In the command bar (<kbd>⌘</kbd> <kbd>K</kbd>), type a question and choose **Ask the assistant**. Outside the editor, this opens the document you edited last and sends the question there. See [Using the command bar](/guides/using-the-command-bar).
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- On an application, **Prepare for next step** opens its linked resume or letter with the assistant and suggestions such as **How well do I fit this role?**, **Draft a follow-up email** and **Prepare me for the interview**. See [Managing an application](/guides/managing-an-application).
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## Ask for a change
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<Steps>
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<Step title="Pick a suggestion or write your own">
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A new conversation starts with a few suggestions, such as **Find weak bullets**, **Tighten to one page** and **Draft a summary** for a resume, or **Make the opening stronger** and **Make it shorter** for a letter. When the document is linked to an application, **Tailor to the … posting** appears first.
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Or type in the box (**Ask, or describe a change…**) and press <kbd>Enter</kbd>. Use <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>Enter</kbd> for a new line.
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</Step>
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<Step title="Let it read and reply">
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The assistant reads your document, then answers in a sentence or two and shows its suggestions as a set of proposed edits. You can keep editing your document while it works.
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</Step>
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</Steps>
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Specific requests work best: "Rewrite my summary for a senior frontend role", "Make the bullets in my latest job lead with results", or "Shorten this letter to under 250 words". When you only ask a question, such as "Which bullet is the weakest?", the assistant answers without proposing edits.
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## Review proposed edits
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Each proposed edit shows where it lands (for example, **Summary · paragraph 1**), the current text struck through, the new text highlighted, and a short reason. The same change is marked on the page, and the section shows a **proposed** badge, so you can read it in place.
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<Frame caption="A proposed edit, shown on the page and in the assistant">
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<img
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src="/images/guides/using-the-assistant/proposed-edit-on-page.webp"
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alt="Resume editor where the summary on the page shows the old text struck through and the new text below it, with a banner reading 1 proposed edit on this page · nothing changes until you accept, and the matching card in the Assistant panel"
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/>
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</Frame>
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<Frame caption="The proposed edit card">
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<img
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src="/images/guides/using-the-assistant/proposed-edit-card.webp"
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alt="Card titled 1 proposed edit, with the location Summary · paragraph 1, the old summary struck through, the shorter new summary highlighted in green, the reason, and Accept and Reject buttons"
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/>
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</Frame>
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- Select **Accept** to apply an edit, or **Reject** to dismiss it.
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- When a set has more than one edit waiting, **Accept all** applies them together.
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- With an edit focused, press <kbd>A</kbd> to accept, <kbd>R</kbd> to reject, and <kbd>↑</kbd> <kbd>↓</kbd> to move between edits.
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Accepted edits show **Applied** and the set's title changes to, for example, **1 of 1 applied**. If you change a passage yourself before deciding, its edit shows **Out of date: the text has changed since.** Ask again to get a fresh suggestion.
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The assistant only rewrites what your document already says. When a posting asks for something your document doesn't mention, it asks you first instead of inventing it.
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## Undo an accepted edit
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Accepting shows a toast, **Edit applied**, with **Undo**. You can also press <kbd>⌘</kbd> <kbd>Z</kbd> (<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> <kbd>Z</kbd>) like any other change, or restore an earlier version from History. An edit you undo becomes pending again in the conversation, so you can accept it later. See [Undoing changes and version history](/guides/undoing-changes-and-version-history).
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## Answer a question
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When the assistant needs a fact or a choice from you, it shows a blue question card with a few answers. Select one, or type your own under **Or in your own words…** and select **Send**. The assistant then continues with your answer.
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<Frame caption="A clarifying question from the assistant">
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<img
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src="/images/guides/using-the-assistant/clarifying-question-card.webp"
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alt="A request to add accessibility work, followed by a blue question card asking whether the user has done accessibility work, with the answers Yes, I have and No, skip it and a box to answer in your own words"
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/>
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</Frame>
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## Choose what's shared with each message
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Above the message box, chips show what goes with your next message: the document, and the job posting when the document is linked to an application. Select the **×** on a chip to leave it out, including before your first message. Without the document, the assistant can't read or edit it for that message. The line under the box always says what will be sent and to which provider, and nothing is sent until you press send.
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When you select **Prepare** from an application's detail panel, the assistant uses that application's posting, even when several applications share the same resume.
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## Attach files
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Select the paperclip in the message box to attach files, such as a job description PDF or your notes. You can attach them before your first message or later in the conversation. Each file shows as a chip; select its **×** to remove it before sending.
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- Plain text, Markdown and JSON files are read as text (up to the first 40,000 characters).
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- Images, PDFs and MP3 or WAV audio are passed to the model directly. Whether the model can use them depends on your provider.
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- Other file types are attached but not read. Paste the relevant text instead.
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- You can attach up to 10 files per message, each up to 25 MB, and 100 MB per conversation.
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<Note>
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Attachments work with local, S3-compatible or Vercel Blob storage and stay private. If you use a reverse proxy, allow
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request bodies of at least 50 MB: files travel base64-encoded, which makes them about a third larger.
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</Note>
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## Search the web
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If you connect an optional **Web access** service in Integrations, the assistant uses that selected service for search and enhanced reading. With no external connection, supported direct OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini configurations can supply native search through your existing AI account. See [Assistant tools](/guides/ai-agent-tools#web-search-support) for model and endpoint requirements.
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You can also supply a public page URL: the assistant uses the selected reader or built-in reading. Page reading does not require a separate search account. Failed reading leads to pasted-text recovery; clipped or incomplete pages are identified before you rely on them.
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The conversation shows search/read progress, failures and retrieved **Sources**. Sources remain visible after reopening the conversation. A failed search keeps your conversation and does not silently switch paid providers.
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## Switch models
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The model chip in the assistant's header shows the model in use. Select it to switch to another connected provider for this conversation, or choose **Connect another…** to add one in settings.
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<Frame caption="The model menu">
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<img
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src="/images/guides/using-the-assistant/model-menu.webp"
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alt="Model menu open under the gpt-5-mini chip, listing the provider Work gateway with its model gpt-5-mini and a checkmark, and Connect another…"
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/>
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</Frame>
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## Stop, retry or copy a conversation
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- **Stop a reply** with the stop button that replaces send while the assistant is working, or press <kbd>Esc</kbd> in the message box. If it stopped before proposing anything, you'll see **Stopped. No edits were proposed.** with **Continue**.
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- **When the provider returns an error**, your message is kept. Select **Retry**, or **Switch model** to try another provider.
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- **Copy transcript** at the end of the conversation copies the messages as plain text, speaker by speaker, without the tool steps, and includes the retrieved source links.
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A single reply can run for about four minutes. If it hits that limit, the assistant says "Time limit reached. Your progress is saved. Ask me to continue."
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## Past conversations
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Each conversation belongs to one document. Opening the assistant continues that document's latest conversation. Select **New conversation** (the pencil) to start fresh, or **Past conversations** (the clock) to see earlier ones.
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<Frame caption="Past conversations for this document">
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<img
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src="/images/guides/using-the-assistant/past-conversations.webp"
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alt="Past conversations list under This document, showing three conversations titled by their first message, each with its time and outcome such as 1 of 1 edits accepted or no edits"
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/>
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</Frame>
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Conversations are titled by your first message and show how many edits you accepted. Conversations about your other documents appear under **Other documents**; opening one takes you to that document. To delete a conversation, hover over it, select **×**, then confirm. Its messages and attachments are deleted, but edits you accepted stay in your document.
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A conversation becomes read-only if its document is locked or deleted, or its provider was deleted. Unlock the document, or pick another model from the model chip, to continue.
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<Info>
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Replies stream while the conversation is open. On instances without Redis (some self-hosted setups), a reply that's
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still running when you reload the page can't be picked up again; its finished messages are still saved.
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</Info>
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## Related guides
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<CardGroup cols={2}>
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<Card title="Connecting an AI provider" href="/guides/using-ai">
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Add, test and manage the providers the assistant uses.
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</Card>
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<Card title="Assistant tools" href="/guides/ai-agent-tools">
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Everything the assistant can read and do.
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</Card>
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<Card title="Tailoring a resume for a job" href="/guides/tailoring-a-resume-for-a-job">
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Link a resume to an application so the assistant sees the posting.
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</Card>
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<Card title="Writing a cover letter" href="/guides/writing-a-cover-letter">
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Use the assistant on letters, too.
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</Card>
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</CardGroup>
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