What is AI Chat?

AI Chat is a general-purpose assistant in the right sidebar of every workspace. You can ask ordinary questions, brainstorm, revise prose, or discuss topics unrelated to the workspace—just as you would in a standalone AI chat.

Scribeist does not automatically include your current document or entire workspace with every message. When a request depends on your work, use Add to provide exact material or enable the relevant Search areas.

AI usage

Managed AI requests consume your included Scribeist AI usage according to the selected model and actual usage. BYOK requests use your connected provider instead.

Start a conversation

Open the AI sidebar, select Chat, and enter a message. No workspace context is required.

Examples:

“Help me brainstorm three ways to raise the tension in this scene.”
“Explain the difference between limited and omniscient narration.”
“Create a weekly writing schedule for a 70,000-word draft.”

Use the model selector to change models or select a Custom AI Assistant. A selected assistant supplies reusable instructions and defaults, while the model remains the engine producing the response. You can change models without turning the assistant off.

If you select a writing voice, the assistant follows that voice along with the workspace language configured in settings.

Add exact context

Select Add beneath the composer to choose material the assistant should read directly.

Depending on the workspace, you can add:

Current document — complete text from the document open in the editor
Documents — either the document’s compact AI summary or its full text
Folders — all documents contained in the folder and its nested folders
Full manuscript — all manuscript documents in a Book workspace
Full workspace — all documents across the workspace
Mythos entities — individual entities or every entity of a selected type
Research — saved research and research notes
File attachments — supported text-based files such as TXT, Markdown, PDF, DOCX, JSON, CSV, TSV, YAML, and RTF

Document selection uses the AI summary by default. Choose Full text when the complete wording matters. For large documents or folders, AI summaries or Search are usually easier to work with.

Added context stays available throughout that chat. You do not need to attach the same document again for every follow-up. Context chips appear while you prepare the message; afterward, the conversation continues naturally with that information in its history.

Large selections

If you add too much material at once, Scribeist asks you to remove items, use AI summaries or Search, or choose another model.

Search the workspace

Turn on Search when you want Scribeist to look for relevant passages across workspace documents and research.

Search is different from adding full text:

Add sends the exact material you selected.
Search looks through the areas you enable for relevant information.

You can use both together. For example, add a character profile and turn on Search to find scenes involving that character.

Use the Search menu to choose whether AI Chat can search workspace documents, research, or Mythos. The available choices depend on the workspace.

When Search is off, AI Chat will not look through those areas. Search may return nothing when it cannot find useful information, so add the exact document or source when complete wording matters.

Use Add → Current document when you want AI Chat to read the complete document open in the editor.

Let Chat suggest document edits

The Edits control determines whether AI Chat may propose changes to the current document.

Open Edits beneath the composer.
Choose Suggest edits.
Ask for a change, such as “Tighten the opening without changing the point of view.”
Review the proposed changes in the editor.
Accept or reject individual changes, or resolve all remaining suggestions together.

The assistant cannot silently rewrite the document. Suggested edits remain pending until you approve them. Turn Edits off when you want advice or rewritten text in Chat without document changes.

Create workspace material from Chat

You can ask AI Chat to create or update Canvas boards and, in Book workspaces, supported Mythos entities and relationships. Newly created items appear as links in the conversation.

Creation options depend on the selected model, workspace type, and plan.

Mythos context and AI Visibility

In workspaces that support Mythos, the Add menu can include Mythos entities. The assistant receives only the profile fields allowed by that entity’s AI Visibility settings.

If an answer depends on an entity’s current state, add the relevant manuscript passage or turn on Search.

Selected editor text

Select text in the editor and choose the chat action to send that selection to AI Chat. The selected passage becomes context for the conversation, where you can ask for feedback, alternatives, or a continuation.

Conversation memory and compaction

Every message in the active chat is part of the conversation context, including previously added files and workspace material. This allows normal follow-up questions without repeating the earlier details.

In a long conversation, Scribeist may display Compacting this chat…. You can continue normally when it finishes, and the complete transcript remains visible in history.

Chat history

Each workspace has its own chat threads.

Select New chat to begin a separate conversation.
Open History to resume an earlier thread.
Older messages load as you scroll.

Use an AI response

Response actions let you:

Insert at cursor
Replace selected text
Copy the response

Attachments and safety

Text-based attachments are parsed and included in the conversation. Image attachments are not supported in AI Chat.

AI can still make mistakes. For important story facts, research claims, or exact quotations, check the cited source material before relying on the answer.