How to use ourAI

Part 1 · Getting started

Start with something real

The app is ourAI. Ask it to explain a difficult paragraph, help with a reply, compare two purchases or investigate a question you cannot quite pin down. You do not need special wording.

New project gives you a clean start and three questions to try. More suggestions changes the questions. Choose one or write your own. A suggestion is a starting point, not a limit on what you can ask.

For a follow-up, stay in the same project. “What about the cheaper one?” makes sense there because the earlier exchange supplies the subject. For something unrelated, start a new project.

When the first answer is not enough

The app starts with its everyday answering model. When an answer needs a closer look, use the controls below it:

• Explain further asks the more capable model to examine the foundations first, surface corrections or uncertainties, and then expand the reasoning and detail.
• Follow up → Check → Get another opinion lets you choose another available model. Give it a reason to disagree: “Check the assumptions and tell me where this comparison breaks down.” Two models agreeing is not independent proof.
• Follow up → Check → Check answer runs a separate evidence review using a different model and fresh web sources.
• Show details identifies the model that answered and recorded lookup activity, including a fallback when reported. Quick, Normal and Best describe the service's model assignments; a more capable model can still be wrong.

Asking well

Give it the actual thing

Paste the email, the message, the paragraph. Describing something you could have pasted often leaves out the detail it needs.

Say who it is for and how long

"Explain it to me like I have never heard of it." "Two sentences." "For my mother, who is 80." "As a list." Tell it these things rather than hoping it guesses.

Correct it rather than starting again

It uses earlier messages in this conversation as context. Long conversations can exceed what fits in a request. If the answer is close, say what is wrong with it — "too formal", "you invented the second paragraph", "shorter" — and it will work from what it already has. You do not have to explain the whole situation again.

Practical habits that improve answers

• Ask for more than one: "Give me three versions, quite different from each other." Choosing between concrete alternatives is often easier than describing the answer you want.
• Ask it to show its working: When the answer matters, "explain how you got that" is worth asking. Wrong reasoning is much easier to spot than a wrong answer.
• Keep one conversation to one subject: Earlier messages influence the next answer. Start a new project when you change subjects; stay in this one when following an idea through.
• Give it something to look at: Attach a photo or document and say what to notice (“Which screw looks loose?” or “Find the cancellation terms and tell me what I would owe”). Check the quoted passage yourself; scanned pages and complicated layouts may not come through cleanly.
• Speak instead of typing: Use Dictate message when your device supports it, or Hands-free in Settings to send recognised speech and read answers aloud. Check what was heard, especially names and numbers.

What it gets wrong

This part matters more than knowing every button. A convincing answer can still be wrong.

• It makes things up, fluently. Names, quotations, book titles, statistics, court cases, phone numbers. A plausible detail is not evidence. Open the source and check that it actually says what the answer claims.
• It can get the sums wrong. A beautifully displayed equation is still worth checking. Use Calculate or your own calculator for a number you will act on.
• It can be out of date. Ask it to look up prices, opening times and recent events. Check the dates on the sources, too.
• It may agree too readily. If you push back, it may change its answer without good reason. “Are you sure?” is a weak test. Try “What would make this wrong?” or “Which evidence disagrees?”
• It can lose an instruction. If you asked for five things and got three, name the missing two. A second opinion may help, but another model can repeat the same mistake.

Under Follow up, Check keeps evidence checks, model comparisons and Check on Google available. Use these to investigate an answer, not merely to collect agreement. If an answer fails, use the error and retry controls; your saved question remains available.

Part 2 · Working with answers

Working with an answer

You do not have to keep asking questions. A good answer can become something you use.

• Copy takes the answer to another app. Code blocks have their own copy control.
• Save keeps an answer privately without asking for a new summary.
• Edit a copy in Follow up opens a document you can title, edit, preview and save while keeping the original answer intact.
• Share answer uses the available sharing controls or copies the answer for you. Check the destination and content before sending.
• Read this aloud uses supported speech features. Names, notation and tables may not sound as clear as ordinary prose.
• Select a passage to work on just that part of an answer.
• Branch from here copies the project up to that answer so you can explore another direction while keeping the original whole.

Follow up groups answer actions into three sections: Continue holds follow-ups, Check holds evidence and model comparisons, and Keep or share holds copies, bookmarks, reminders and sharing. Expand Sources beneath an answer to inspect its references; evidence gaps remain visible even when sources are closed.

Use Helpful or Report a problem to give specific feedback (such as a wrong citation, an invented detail or an answer that stopped). When an answer offers an action card for a reminder, calendar entry, email or message, review the proposed details first; a suggestion in an answer has not already sent a message or added an event.

Working with selected text

Sometimes one sentence is the obstacle. Highlight a short passage in an answer (up to 1,200 characters; the first 600 are quoted) and a small toolbar appears beside it:

• Explain sends a follow-up immediately asking for a fuller explanation of that passage.
• Simplify asks for plainer wording when vocabulary is getting in the way of the idea.
• Use selection… prepares a checklist, shopping list, day-by-day plan or message after you choose the form and tone. Choosing a message drafts it in the project; it does not send it to the person you name.
• In your own questions: selecting text in a question you sent offers Rephrase (restate plainly and answer) and Shorter (answer in half the length) without editing your original message.

Calculations and plots

When Calculate is available in Research, open it to describe a calculation in ordinary words. You can start with an editable example for percentages, units, equations, plots, statistics or music; choosing an example does not run it.

• Include values, units and plot ranges: select Calculate when ready, or Close to keep your draft for that project in this browser.
• Inspect the calculation card: the selected answer model prepares the expression, and a dedicated computation engine evaluates it. Open Inputs and calculation to check the result, assumptions, expression and planning model.
• Revise or save plots: Change inputs reopens the request for editing without running it automatically, and Save plot downloads a computed PNG. A completed calculation does not verify source data, clinical advice or the whole answer.
• Missing details or errors: if the planner asks a clarifying question, answer it by choosing Calculate again. Stop ends the answer request; reopening a saved result never executes it again.

Part 3 · Research and sources

Looking things up

For opening times, prices, recent events or a claim you need to check, say that you want current sources. Give a place and a date when they matter. “Find a quiet restaurant near the station for Saturday lunch” is a different search from “What is the best restaurant?”

ourAI can search and read accessible pages when those tools are available. If it asks a short clarifying question first, answer in the same project. Some pages cannot be read, some results are only snippets, and some material is behind a subscription; a link in the answer does not mean the whole page was read.

Check what supports the answer

Reviews and source checks start only when you ask. Choose the tool that matches what you need to verify:

• Numbered citations and Sources: open a numbered citation to read its saved passage beside the answer, or choose Show all cited sources and Review evidence to inspect retained passages, retrieval times, source dates and access limitations. A citation check can establish that a reference points to a recorded source. It cannot establish that the source is true, or that it supports every sentence around the citation. Read the passage that matters.
• Follow up → Check answer: starts a fresh review using a different model and fresh web evidence. It examines up to six important claims, rereads up to four original public sources (plus bounded claim searches and arithmetic checks), and reports each claim as Supported, Contradicted or Unresolved. Supported corrections appear under What changed, and Read updated answer opens a consolidated version while preserving the original. If checking stops, Resume checking recovers an unsettled request before starting a new attempt.
• Explain further: examines the foundations of the answer first, surfacing corrections and uncertainties before expanding the reasoning.
• Outward verification links: Find scholarly sources opens Google Scholar and Search on Google opens a general web search in a new tab. Ask ourAI to preserve disagreements when sources give different prices or dates.

Deliberate deeper research

Signed-in members can choose Research further from an answer’s Follow up menu to run a separate public-source investigation:

• Isolated public brief: review the public question and optional constraints before starting. Only the question and constraints you review are sent; conversation history, memories and attachments are excluded.
• Runs in the background: you can close the panel and return later, or reopen jobs from Settings → Connections and data → Background activity. Stop ends further work where possible, though usage already incurred still counts.
• Review and attach evidence: open Source evidence and omissions to distinguish page reads from search snippets, use Keep, Exclude or Find another perspective to curate sources, and choose Use evidence in conversation to attach passages for review before sending.
• Manage and record outcomes: search, rename, archive or delete completed investigations (once any unresolved charge is settled), and record Chosen, Tried or Ruled out with a reason.

Keep constraints and reusable research

Use Actions → Custom instructions & memory (or the custom instructions banner beneath the project header) to keep a budget, place, date range or source preference with that project for future requests. When you want to keep or update findings:

• Copy: offers Answer only, Answer with sources and Research packet (question, answer and saved source passages, excluding private memory and attachments).
• Research brief & Save research: inside Review evidence, open an editable document with your question, constraints, findings and sources to edit and save privately without making another model request.
• Compare with previous answer: highlights added or rewritten paragraphs, source link changes and literal number changes; it compares wording rather than factual truth.
• Update this & Refresh selected facts: prepares a follow-up request naming the facts that may have changed (such as prices or availability) for you to review before sending, without overwriting your saved document.

Finding and continuing research

• Command palette (⌘K / Ctrl+K): find commands and loaded projects, or choose Search all work to include saved server records. Commands prepare work or open screens; Calculate still requires an explicit submission.
• Unfinished drafts in Retained: lists calculation, export and edited-answer drafts stored in this browser. Choose Resume to open the original project, Copy draft to recover text even if the project is unavailable, or Discard to remove that browser draft.
• Bookmarks and open questions: under Follow up, choose Bookmark this answer or Record an open question. Both appear in the project outline and stay private to this account in this browser.
• Search results and evidence filters: search results open the matching turn and highlight visible matches while Back to results preserves your search. Review evidence filters cited sources, other retrieved pages and unread pages.

Medical study and medical sources

For study, ask for the mechanism, the differential or the evidence behind a claim. “Explain why these findings fit together” usually teaches you more than “Give me the diagnosis.” Say your level and what you already understand.

In Actions → Custom instructions & memory → Medical study preferences, you can choose your stage, topics and preferred depth. With study preferences enabled, Study this medical topic can prepare a quiz, a fictional case, a mechanism question or a paper appraisal from an answer for you to review and send.

• PubMed finds biomedical publications and available abstracts. An abstract is not the full paper.
• PMC provides accessible full-text articles. It does not unlock every journal indexed by PubMed.
• DailyMed supplies drug labelling. Check the exact product, formulation and label date; a label does not replace patient-specific advice.

Ask for a current guideline when the question concerns current practice, and check population, setting and publication date. Use the app to study and prepare questions, not to make an urgent clinical decision, and never paste identifiable patient information.

Going deeper into music

Ask about a recording, a performer, a work, an arrangement, a historical claim or the sources behind an interpretation. Give the album, artist and version when you can; a composition, a particular performance and a later reissue are different things.

• MusicBrainz helps identify recordings, releases, works and credits. Its contributor-maintained catalogue is a lead to check when detail matters; missing relationships do not prove a musician or work was absent.
• Music references (in Actions → Custom instructions & memory): points research towards Smithsonian Folkways (cultural and recording notes), Carnegie Hall's archives (concert history), the Library of Congress (collections and history), RISM (manuscript and source catalogues) and Open Music Theory (terminology and analysis).
• External catalogues and scores: Grove Music Online and library guides are useful places to continue reading, though a catalogue entry or link does not mean ourAI has access to the underlying subscription article, score or audio recording.

Part 4 · Projects and saved work

Finding and keeping your work

The top menubar runs across the workspace: ourAI returns to the main page, Research holds your personal projects, Imagine opens image and video creation, Retained holds saved notes, documents, creations and grouped work, Shared holds group discussions, Settings opens account and appearance preferences, and Help opens this guide. Use the desktop history sidebar, open Projects on a smaller screen, or use Search to find earlier work.

• Search and Ask across saved work: Search finds matching saved work. Ask, where offered, uses matching projects and notes to answer a question about that work; check which records were used.
• Summarise as note vs saving exact wording: Summarise as note asks for a new summary. Read it before relying on it: a summary can omit a condition that mattered in the original. Saving the existing answer is better when you want its exact wording.
• Pin, rename and archive: pin projects you use often, use Actions → Rename → Suggest a title for a quick local title suggestion, or choose Actions → Archive (and bulk Archive selected / Restore selected in All projects) to keep your sidebar tidy.
• Attachments and interrupted requests: review extracted text or images in the attachment tray before sending. If an answer is interrupted, Check saved request checks the existing request before Retry or Continue starts a new one.
• Export and Apple Notes: open Actions → Export… → Apple Notes (or text download/copy) to export a separate copy of the project or latest answer. Choose Format for another AI to include an independent-review prompt with questions, answers and source links while excluding attachments and private memory.

Projects give related work a home

A project group in Retained pairs related projects with standing instructions and reference documents. Use it for something that lasts: a move, a research topic, a trip or a piece of writing. Tag a project when you want its instructions and documents to apply to future questions.

• Standing instructions: keep instructions concrete (“This is for a two-bedroom flat; we rent; no permanent alterations”).
• Reference documents: put longer reference material in documents and check which documents are included rather than assuming every file is read in full.
• Existing project facts: review or retire saved facts at their source so stale context does not carry into new answers.

Part 5 · Creating and sharing

Creating images and video

When creation is enabled for your account, choose Imagine in the top menubar, then switch between Image and Video inside the creation screen (or open Creations to browse earlier results). Your description begins as a draft; nothing is sent until you press Create.

• Describe the scene and format: for an image, name the subject, light and style (“A small reading room, evening light, a blue armchair, in watercolor”). For a video, describe one short scene and its camera movement.
• Reference images: attach a reference image inside Imagine to preserve a concrete layout or subject. Uploaded references are resized and stripped of location metadata; personal memories and unrelated projects are not sent. Some providers refuse photos of real people.
• Options and Image tools: use Options → Creative context and Review next request to inspect or clear carried instructions before sending. Supported models offer transparent backgrounds, a marked edit rectangle, up to two purpose-labelled references, and video frame previews.

Work on the result and leave jobs running

• Revise and compare versions: describe a change in the composer (“Keep the composition; make the light cooler”), use Use this version to return to an earlier result, or open More for Compare versions, Animate this image, Revise this video (for clips up to ten seconds) and Try a variation.
• Save, download and share: Save marks a favourite. Download exports the original, a smaller PNG or a JPEG on your device without another paid request. Share posts that single result to a chosen group discussion while keeping your references and earlier versions private.
• Background jobs and recovery: you can close the creation screen while a job runs and return via Imagine → Creations or Retained. If the connection drops during submission, use Check request rather than submitting a duplicate paid job.
• Delete and Trash: Delete moves a creation to Trash (and removes it from shared galleries), where Restore can bring it back before 30-day cleanup. Download important results for your own archive, as text backups do not include media files.

Sharing with the group

Share with group (under project Actions) shares a reviewed snapshot with everyone in the group. Read the preview first and remove private details before sharing. Later edits to your personal project do not silently alter the snapshot people received.

• Discuss alongside the snapshot: on a wide screen, drag the divider between the shared project and its replies. Write in Message the group to talk to people there, or choose Ask ourAI to invite the assistant in.
• Automatic participation: ourAI may contribute occasionally when helpful without searching online. Choose Pause ourAI to stop automatic replies.
• Keep decisions and next steps: under Discussion options → Decisions and next steps, record agreed decisions (along with rejected options), assign next steps with a person and date, or Share a document after reviewing its extracted text. Choose Catch me up to review recorded messages, decisions and open actions.
• Move back to Personal: if you shared the discussion, Discussion options → Move to Personal moves it under Moved from Group in your personal list and removes group access, though copies or notifications already sent cannot be recalled.

Notifications and reminders

• Group activity: shows newly shared projects and comments. Open an item to jump to the discussion, or mute a discussion to reduce interruptions without leaving it.
• Device notifications: optional browser or app notifications can be enabled in Settings when your device permits them. Because device settings can delay or block alerts, the in-app activity list remains the reliable record.
• Project reminders: set a reminder on a project to return to it at a chosen date and time. A reminder brings you back to the project; it does not run a new request automatically.

Part 6 · Privacy, settings and recovery

What the app remembers

Context comes from separate, inspectable sources that you control:

• About you & Saved memories (in Settings): profile text you enter and individual memory items you have approved. Turning memory suggestions off stops new prompts without deleting memories you already approved.
• Custom instructions & memory (in project Actions): lets you choose which personal, project or group context applies to future questions in that project, and inspect the exact context receipt for an earlier answer.
• Message history in the current project: turning personal context off does not erase text you already typed in the current conversation. Start a new project when you need a clean boundary.
• Medical study preferences: stay personal and are excluded from shared group discussions and whenever personal context is turned off.

Private in the app is not the same as staying on your device

Personal work stays private from other group members unless you share it. However, the cloud model answering your request receives the material included in that request, search providers receive search queries, and external links open outside ourAI. A shared snapshot, export or copied answer is a separate disclosure that cannot be recalled once sent.

Files, devices and settings

• Attachments and share sheet: attach photos or supported documents and tell ourAI what to look for. Verify names, numbers and quotes against the original file. When sharing into ourAI from another app, review the text and target project before pressing Send.
• Themes, fonts and reading size: Settings → Appearance and accessibility → Themes brings together the four colour themes (Simple, Graphite, Amber and Contrast), light or dark mode, reading fonts (Source Sans 3, Source Serif 4 or OpenDyslexic) and text sizes (Standard, Large or Extra large).
• Signing in on another device: set a password in Settings and sign in with your username. Do not share your sign-in details with the group.

When something does not work

Check the save status in the top bar before signing out, clearing browser storage or switching devices.

• An answer is still running: allow it to finish or use the stop control. Sending the same question repeatedly can create separate requests.
• The connection dropped: use the recovery or retry controls so the app checks the recorded request before running anything again.
• The answer failed: read the error notice. Sources already retrieved may still be available to inspect even if no answer text arrived.
• You are offline: reconnect to sync and ask cloud models. A local draft does not mean the server has received it.
• A list will not load: try its reload control after checking your connection; a loading error does not mean your projects were deleted.
• Backups and timing diagnostics: Settings → Connections and data → Storage and recovery downloads a private account backup or restores saved copies without overwriting current work. Settings → Help → Answer speed shows recorded timings and failed requests to help you report an issue.

Where to ask for help

Ask PAVI for help with account access, an expired invite code or configuration. If something goes wrong, note the project, approximate time and what you expected to happen.

There is no question too silly. Try a small, real task. If the answer misses the point, say so: “That is not what I meant. Here is the part I need help with.”