# Chat with your systems

> Ask questions in plain English and let your assistant read from and write to every tool you have connected.

Chat is the conversational surface inside General Input. Ask in plain English, watch it call the right APIs across your connected tools, and review what it did before anything lands.

Because it runs on the integrations you authorized, it is not answering from a stale copy of your data. It reads live from the source.

## Start a conversation

<Steps>
  <Step>
    Click **Chat** in the sidebar. Your past conversations are listed on the
    left; click **New chat** to start a fresh one.
  </Step>
  <Step>
    Pick a model from the model selector. Fast models for simple lookups,
    smarter models for nuanced reasoning. Some models also let you pick a
    reasoning effort.
  </Step>
  <Step>
    Type your request and hit **Enter**. The assistant shows its reasoning and
    tool calls inline as it works.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Callout type="tip">
  Be specific about inputs and the desired output. "Last 5 Stripe payouts as a
  Slack summary in #finance" beats "tell me about Stripe."
</Callout>

## Write a good request

The difference between a vague answer and a useful one is usually in the ask. Three things to include:

- **The source.** Which tool the data lives in, and which account, sheet, board, or channel.
- **The filter.** A time range, a status, an owner. Anything that narrows it.
- **The output.** A table, a Slack message, a row appended to a sheet, a draft email.

Type **@** to mention a skill, workflow, or file so it uses exactly the resource you mean. Prefer talking? Click the microphone in the input to dictate your request.

## Review before it acts

Anything that writes to a connected tool surfaces for approval first. You see what is about to happen and approve or reject it, so a misread request never silently sends an email or edits a record.

<Callout type="note">
  Reads generally run without a prompt; writes ask. If you would rather an agent
  never touch a given service, disconnect it or scope its credential down to
  read-only.
</Callout>

## Turn a chat into a workflow

Once a conversation does something worth repeating, ask for it to be saved as a workflow. The same steps become a reproducible automation you can schedule or trigger.

Ask for the conversation to be turned into a workflow.

<Callout type="tip">
  Clean workflows come from clean conversations. Run a tidy version of the
  request once before saving it.
</Callout>

## What's next

Ready to make it repeatable and scheduled? Head to [Build your first workflow](/getting-started/build-your-first-workflow).