AI Assistant - Settings | TotalApp Docs

Overview

TotalApp's AI assistant panels are embedded directly into their host screens — they understand the context of the data on screen and can answer questions, generate reports, and perform analysis without you needing to copy-paste data into a separate tool. All assistant settings are global and apply to every panel across the app.

AI Assistant settings live in Settings → AI Assistant.

Panel Width

The assistant panel is a fixed overlay anchored to the right edge of the viewport. Three widths are available:

Small
288px

Medium
320px

Large
384px

When the panel is open, the host screen's content area reserves right-side padding equal to the panel width so that table columns and action buttons are not hidden behind the panel.

Auto-Open

When enabled, the AI assistant panel opens automatically when you navigate to a screen that has an embedded assistant. Useful if you rely on the assistant frequently. When disabled (default), you open the panel manually via the vertical tab anchored to the right viewport edge.

Typing Indicator

Shows an animated thinking spinner with a "Thinking..." label while the AI is generating a response. Toggle it off if you find it distracting. When off, the panel simply shows no new bubble until the response arrives.

Suggestion Chips

On an empty chat (no messages yet), the panel shows a list of example question chips below the glowing Sparkles icon. Clicking a chip sends it as your message immediately. Toggle off to start with a clean empty state — useful if you already know exactly what to ask.

History Depth

Controls how many previous message pairs (user message + AI response) are included as context when you send a new message. Range: 1–20; default: 10.

Higher depth — the AI has more conversation context, leading to more coherent multi-turn conversations. Requests take longer and cost more tokens.
Lower depth — faster responses with less context. Best for single-shot analytical questions where conversation history is not needed.

Use New Chat for Fresh Context

Click the New Chat button (pencil square icon) in the assistant panel header to start a fresh session. This clears the current conversation from context (but saves it in the History panel), so subsequent questions are not influenced by previous exchanges.

Supported Screens

Screen	Data Context	Can Save Reports?
Kanban Board	All tasks in all columns across all projects	No
My Tasks	User's own tasks (all or selected project)	No
My Notes	User's notes (all or active note)	No
My Projects	All projects with member counts and status	No
My Workflows	Saved workflow graphs with node/edge details	No
My Presentations	Saved presentations with slide content	No
HR Reports	Employee, leave, expense, and overtime data	Yes
Ecommerce Reports	Live Shopify products, orders, and customers	Yes
Course Builder	Current course snapshot (lessons, sections, tests)	No
Shopify Integration	Live Shopify Admin GraphQL data	No

Frequently Asked Questions

Are AI Assistant settings per-screen or global?

All AI Assistant settings — panel width, auto-open, typing indicator, suggestion chips, font size, and history depth — are global. Changing any of them in Settings → AI Assistant instantly affects every embedded assistant panel across TotalApp (Kanban, HR Reports, Ecommerce Reports, My Tasks, My Notes, My Projects, My Workflows, My Presentations, Course Builder, Shopify Integration, and any future assistant-enabled screen). There is no per-screen override.

Why can some screens save reports and others can't?

Only screens designed around markdown report generation — currently HR Reports and Ecommerce Reports — expose a "Save as Report" action in the assistant panel's bottom dock. Screens like Kanban Board, My Tasks, or My Notes use the assistant purely for conversational Q&A over your data and don't produce a report artifact, so no save action appears for them.

Does increasing History Depth cost more or slow down responses?

Yes. History Depth controls how many previous message pairs are sent as context with each new request. A higher depth (up to 20) gives the AI more conversational memory but increases the token count of every request, which can make responses take longer and consume more of your usage quota. If you mostly ask one-off analytical questions, keep History Depth low (1–3) for the fastest responses.

How do I get a clean conversation without losing my previous chat?

Click the New Chat button (pencil-square icon) in the assistant panel header. This resets the active conversation's context to zero, but the previous conversation is not deleted — it is saved to the panel's History list, accessible via the Clock icon, so you can reopen it later without it influencing your new questions.

AI Assistant Settings