--- uid: how-to.ask-the-ai description: "Not sure how to do something in Intent Architect, or what a term means? Ask the AI Assistant: it answers from these docs with links to the pages it used, explains your own solution too, and takes an error straight from the button next to it." --- # Ask the AI when you're stuck Not sure how to do something in Intent Architect, or what a term means? Ask the AI Assistant. It looks the answer up in these docs and gives you the steps with a link to the page, and it can explain how your own solution fits together too. Hit an error? Many have a button next to them that hands the problem straight to the AI. This guide shows how to get an answer you can check, point the AI at the part of your solution you mean, and know when F1 Help or support is the better route. ## Ask the AI Assistant how to do something in Intent Architect Open the AI Assistant with **F8**, or with the AI Assistant button on the toolbar. Under the message box, open the agent menu and choose **Ask**. Ask is the agent for questions: it can read your solution, but it can't change anything. Then type your question the way you'd ask a colleague. Each of these got an answer with links on the Acme sample: - "How do I see all the keyboard shortcuts in Intent Architect?" - "What's a stereotype, and how do I add one to an attribute?" - "How do I stop the Software Factory from overwriting a method I changed by hand?" Whenever you ask about Intent Architect itself, Ask searches these docs before it answers. A **Search docs** step appears in the chat, and the answer links the pages it used, so you can read more or check it. The keyboard shortcuts question took 7 seconds: the answer was **Ctrl + .**, with a link to the Keyboard Shortcuts page. ![The agent menu under the message box with Ask selected, above Ask's answer about keyboard shortcuts with a Search docs step and a link](images/ask-agent-answer.png) _Choose Ask in the agent menu. Its answer links the docs pages it used._ Agent and Plan can search the docs too, so you can ask a quick question in the middle of a task. They don't always search, though, so use Ask when you want an answer you can check. ## Ask the AI Assistant about your own solution The **Ask** agent reads your designers and your code as well, so you can ask what's in your solution or how part of it works. On the Acme sample, this question took 36 seconds: > How does cancelling an @Order work in this solution, from the API down to the database? The answer traced the request from the API endpoint, through the command and its handler and the `Cancel` operation on `Order` with its business rule, to the database mapping, and named the file for each step. The AI knows which designer you have open, but not which element you've selected in it. To point it at an element or a file, type `@` and the start of its name, then pick it from the list: **Models** lists elements from your designers, and **Files** lists files in your codebase. What you pick is attached to your message. ![The @ list in the message box, showing the Models and Files that match "Ord"](images/mention-an-element.png) _Type @ and the start of a name, then pick the element or file from the list._ > [!TIP] > You can also paste a screenshot, attach files, drag in a change from Change Review or say your question out loud. See [Give the AI the right context, fast](https://docs.intentarchitect.com/docs-md/how-to-guides/give-the-ai-context/give-the-ai-context.md). To see how elements fit together, ask for a diagram. Ask draws one in the chat, from your model: ![Ask's answer to "Show me how Customer, Order and OrderStatus fit together on a diagram": a class diagram of the three, drawn in the chat](images/diagram-in-chat.png) _Ask draws the diagram in its answer. It doesn't change your designers._ To see the real elements laid out in a designer, ask in **Agent**, and say not to change anything: > Show me how Customer, Order and OrderStatus fit together on a diagram. Don't change anything. With Claude Sonnet 5.5 as the model, the agent opened a temporary Explorer Diagram of the three in the Domain designer and left the model unchanged. Click **Keep Diagram** if you want to save it as a normal diagram. Not every model manages this: with the Intent Architect Provided model, the same request came back with an empty diagram. If that happens, choose another model from the menu next to the agent menu and ask again. ![A temporary Explorer Diagram of Order, Customer and OrderStatus in the Domain designer, with the Keep Diagram button](images/explorer-diagram.png) _The diagram is temporary until you click Keep Diagram._ ## Start a chat from the AI button next to an error or a file Many places in Intent Architect have a button that starts a chat in the AI Assistant with the details already filled in, so you don't have to copy anything across: - **A Software Factory error:** click **Try fix with AI** on it. The chat starts straight away with the error message. See [Troubleshooting Software Factory errors](https://docs.intentarchitect.com/docs-md/application-development/software-factory/troubleshooting-software-factory-errors/troubleshooting-software-factory-errors.md). - **A task that failed:** click **Resolve with AI** on the task's tab. See [Set up tasks so the agent can build, test and run your app](https://docs.intentarchitect.com/docs-md/how-to-guides/set-up-tasks/set-up-tasks.md). - **Conflicts in a merge or rebase:** click **Resolve with AI** on the bar at the top of the Source Control pane. - **A file you want changed:** right-click it, in the Codebase pane for example, and choose **Create AI Task**. The chat opens with the file attached, and you type what you want. - **A file Change Review shows as Unclassified:** click **Unclassified**, then **Ask AI**. The chat opens with the file's details for you to finish. - **A solution with no applications yet:** click **Ask the AI Assistant** and describe what you want to build. ## Use F1 Help or support when the AI can't help Press **F1**, or click the **?** button on the toolbar, to open **Help**. It lists help topics for the designer and element you're working in, such as **Adding a Diagram** in the Domain designer, and its search box searches every topic. Use it to browse what you can do where you are. It opens topics in your browser and doesn't connect to the AI chat. See [Getting help: Reference & resources](https://docs.intentarchitect.com/docs-md/introducing/getting-help.md#in-app-help). Help also always offers **Contact Support**. Contact support when the AI tells you the docs don't cover what you asked, when its answer has no link, or when something looks like a bug. Say what you asked, so the answer can be added to the docs. If the problem is with a chat itself, such as an agent that stops or errors, type `/diagnostics` in that chat. **Gather Diagnostics** saves the chat's logs and session details as a zip in your Downloads folder, ready to attach to your support request. No API keys or credentials are included. ## Limitations - **An answer without a link may be a guess.** Where the docs don't cover something, the AI falls back on its own general knowledge. Asked how to export a diagram to Visio, Ask said there's no direct export, then suggested an image export "commonly available via the diagram's toolbar", with no link. Treat any part of an answer without a link as unchecked, ask again in Ask, and contact support if the docs don't cover it. - **The AI can't operate Intent Architect for you.** It can't click menus, open dialogs or change your user settings. Asked to open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog, Agent replied that it can't open UI dialogs, then named a Help menu that doesn't exist on Windows. Ask how to do it in Ask instead, and do it yourself. Agent can still change your model, your code and your application settings. ## Related articles - [AI Assistant](https://docs.intentarchitect.com/docs-md/application-development/ai-assisted-development/ai-assistant/index.md) - the AI Assistant, its agents and its AI providers. - [Built-in Agents](https://docs.intentarchitect.com/docs-md/integrated-ai/built-in-agents/index.md) - what Ask, Agent and Plan can each do. - [Getting help: Reference & resources](https://docs.intentarchitect.com/docs-md/introducing/getting-help.md) - every way to get help, including how to contact support. - [Vibe coding, Plan Mode or Spec-Driven Development: when to use which](https://docs.intentarchitect.com/docs-md/how-to-guides/vibe-coding-plan-mode-or-sdd/vibe-coding-plan-mode-or-sdd.md) - when to just prompt, plan first or write a spec.