Choosing the right assistant
Choosing the right assistant
Section titled “Choosing the right assistant”You can chat with Chat exactly as it comes — just type a question and go. But when you keep asking the same kind of question, you can save the setup once and reuse it. That’s what an assistant is: a saved configuration that gives Chat a job, a voice, and a set of trusted sources to work from.
This guide explains the difference between the default chat and a purpose-built assistant, and walks you through picking — or building — the right one.
Goal: know when the default chat is enough, when to switch to an assistant, and how to choose one that already knows your material and stays on-topic.
Before you start:
- You can use the default chat and any assistant shared with you right away — nothing to set up.
- To create or edit assistants, you need the matching permission in your workspace. If you don’t see a New assistant option, ask your administrator.
- To link your own documents, have a Knowledge Collection ready (or be able to upload files) — see Upload a file.
Default chat vs. an assistant
Section titled “Default chat vs. an assistant”| Default chat | An assistant | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | One-off questions, quick drafts, general help | Repeated work of a specific kind |
| Setup | None — just start typing | Configured once, reused forever |
| Knows your documents | Only files you add to the current conversation | Always — through its linked Knowledge |
| Tone & format | General-purpose | A fixed persona (e.g. concise, formal, bulleted) |
| Stays on-topic / on-policy | Standard protections | Plus its own Guardrail Pack |
Think of the default chat as a capable generalist, and an assistant as a colleague you’ve briefed: it already knows the project, the house style, and the rules.
You don’t have to choose forever. You can start a question in the default chat and switch to an assistant mid-conversation, or the other way around.
What an assistant is made of
Section titled “What an assistant is made of”Every assistant bundles four things. You don’t have to set all four — even just a system prompt and one Knowledge Collection makes a useful assistant.
- A system prompt — plain-language instructions for the assistant’s job. For example: “You are a support specialist for the Acme billing team. Answer only from the linked policies. If you don’t know, say so.”
- A persona — the voice and shape of the answers: tone, length, and formatting style (short and direct, or thorough and structured).
- Linked Knowledge — one or more Knowledge Collections the assistant draws from and cites. This is what lets it answer from your material instead of general knowledge.
- A Guardrail Pack — the safety and topic rules the assistant follows (see below).
Your workspace comes with a built-in Business Assistant you can use right away, and you can create your own.
Linked Knowledge Collections
Section titled “Linked Knowledge Collections”A Knowledge Collection is a curated set of documents — uploaded files, or pages pulled in from a website — that Chat searches and cites when it answers. Linking a collection to an assistant means every answer is grounded in that material, with clickable source references so you can check the original.
When an assistant has linked Knowledge:
- Answers pull from those documents first and show numbered citations you can click to see the exact source, snippet, and how confident the match was.
- A “Sources Used” card lists everything the answer drew on.
- If your documents don’t cover the question, you’ll see a note that the assistant is answering from general knowledge instead — so you always know whether the answer came from your material or not.
Collections come in scopes, which control who can see them:
| Scope | Who can use it |
|---|---|
| Personal | Only you — strictly private |
| Folder | Members of a shared folder (project) |
| Tenant | Everyone in your organization |
Choose an assistant whose linked Knowledge matches what you’re working on. A “Sales FAQ” assistant linked to your current price sheets will beat the default chat for any pricing question.
Want to add your own documents? See Upload a file to add a document to a conversation, then promote it into a Knowledge Collection your assistant can reuse.
Guardrail Packs, in plain terms
Section titled “Guardrail Packs, in plain terms”A Guardrail Pack is the set of rules an assistant works within — the same idea as a team policy, applied automatically to every message. It’s there to keep answers safe, on-topic, and appropriate for where the assistant is used.
You don’t configure guardrails as a chat user, and you don’t need to think about them day-to-day. What matters to you:
- Guardrails are about trust, not restriction. They’re why you can put an assistant in front of a customer or a wider team with confidence.
- A finance assistant and a public help assistant can carry different rules, so each stays appropriate for its audience.
- If something can’t be answered within an assistant’s rules, Chat tells you plainly and explains what to do next, rather than failing silently.
If you ever wonder why an assistant declined a request, see Why it said no.
Choose an assistant
Section titled “Choose an assistant”- Open a new conversation (or an existing one you want to switch over).
- Open the assistant selector in the conversation header (or, in a channel, type
$in the message box to pick an assistant for that message). - Browse the list. Each assistant shows its name and what it’s for — match it to your task:
- Drafting in a house style? Pick the assistant whose persona matches that style.
- Answering from specific documents? Pick the one whose linked Knowledge covers them.
- Just exploring? Stay on the default chat.
- Select the assistant. Your next messages now use its instructions, voice, Knowledge, and guardrails.
- Send your question as usual. Watch for citations under the answer to confirm it’s drawing on the right sources.
Tip — pair it with the right depth. The assistant decides what Chat knows and how it behaves; the interaction tier (Interactive, Thinking, Research) in the message box decides how hard it thinks. Chat starts on Thinking, which is right for most work. For a fast answer with no document lookup, drop to Interactive; for a thorough, well-sourced answer, switch to Research before sending.
Worked example: a customer-support assistant
Section titled “Worked example: a customer-support assistant”You answer billing questions all day and keep pasting the same policy into the chat. Set up an assistant once instead.
- Gather your billing policies and FAQs into a Knowledge Collection (upload the PDFs, or crawl your help-center pages).
- Create an assistant with a system prompt like: “Answer billing questions for Acme customers using only the linked policies. Be concise and friendly. If a policy doesn’t cover it, say you’ll escalate.”
- Set its persona to short and warm.
- Link the billing Knowledge Collection.
- From then on, select that assistant and just ask the question. Answers come back in the right tone, grounded in the current policies, with citations — and within the assistant’s guardrails, so it’s safe to use with customers.
Build or edit your own assistant
Section titled “Build or edit your own assistant”If no existing assistant fits, you can make one:
- Open Assistants from the conversation header or assistant selector.
- Choose New assistant and either describe what you want in plain language (the builder helps you fill in the details) or fill the fields directly.
- Set the system prompt, pick a persona, link one or more Knowledge Collections, and — if your administrator has set up Guardrail Packs — choose the one that fits the assistant’s audience.
- Save. The assistant now appears in your selector for reuse.
You can edit any assistant you own later, and the built-in Business Assistant can be reset to its original instructions if you’ve changed it and want to start over.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”The assistant answered from “general knowledge,” not my documents. Its linked Knowledge Collection either has no document covering the question, or isn’t linked. Confirm the right collection is linked, and that the documents you expect are in it. See Upload a file.
The answer’s tone or length is wrong. That’s the persona. Pick an assistant with a different persona, or edit the assistant you own and adjust its persona settings.
The assistant declined to answer. It hit one of its guardrails. Chat will explain why and what to do next — see Why it said no.
I can’t see a particular assistant or collection. Access depends on scope and on what your administrator has shared with you. Personal collections are private to their owner; folder and organization collections depend on your membership. Ask the owner or your administrator to share it.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Upload a file — add documents an assistant can use and cite.
- Search the web — let an answer reach beyond your documents.
- Why it said no — what a guardrail decision means and how to proceed.
- Your privacy — how your data and personal Knowledge stay private.