The Companion workspace

The Companion tab in the workspace row opens a place for longer conversations with your companion. Unlike the panel in the context rail, which is for a quick question on the page you are on, every chat here is saved in the realm. You can start several, come back to one days later, and read what was said.

Starting and keeping chats#

1. 1Open the Companion tab and choose New chat, or type straight into the message box on the workspace home — the chat is created when you send.
2. 2Type a message and press Enter to send it; Shift+Enter starts a new line.
3. 3Your companion works for a moment, then the reply appears in the conversation with suggested next steps you can send back with one click.
4. 4Archive a chat from its menu in the list when you are finished with it. Archived chats stay readable; nothing is deleted — except a temporary chat, which is deleted when you archive it (see below).

While your companion is working#

A quiet line under the conversation shows that a run is in progress, and a Stop button appears beside it. Pressing Stop, or pressing Escape anywhere in the workspace while you are not typing, ends the run. A run that had not started yet stops at once; one already talking to the model stops at its next step. What you had typed stays in the message box.

What your companion can see#

Each reply is drafted from the same permission-aware view of your realm as every other AI tool, plus the earlier turns of the same chat. Type @ in the message box to point at a record; the reply then knows exactly which one you mean. Records or pages the reply drew on are listed beneath it as links. Your companion never changes your realm on its own: when it wants to create something, it asks first, and when it writes something, it stays a draft beside the chat until you promote it.

Attaching a document to a chat#

You can give a chat something to read. The paperclip beside Send takes a PDF, a Word document (.docx), a PNG, JPEG or WebP image, or a plain text, Markdown or JSON file — or text you paste in with a name of your choosing, files you pick in Google Drive, or a link to a web page. What you attach is reference material for that chat: your companion reads it when it answers, and it never becomes a record in your realm on its own — a record still needs you to ask for one and to approve what is proposed.

• A PDF or Word document can be up to 20 MB, an image up to 10 MB, and a plain text, Markdown or JSON file up to 10 MB. The file is read, not just trusted by its name, so something else renamed .pdf or .txt is refused.
• A chat carries 5 documents at once, counting any still being read. Detaching one frees a slot; a detached document is not deleted, it just stops being read.
• An archived chat keeps the documents it carried when it was archived: nothing more can be attached to it, and nothing can be detached from it.
• You can attach 10 documents an hour in total, counted across every realm you work in — not 10 in each realm.
• Attaching can be turned off for the whole of DMRealm. While it is, the paperclip is dimmed and the line under the message box says Imports are turned off for now. Documents a chat already carries stay listed, are still read, and can still be detached.
• Each attached document sits above the message box with its name, kind, size and how much text was read from it. If the file was too long to keep whole, the card says trimmed to fit, and any reply written over part of it says which document was cut — a shortened document never looks like a whole one.

The Details panel keeps the fuller picture. Its Documents section lists everything the chat has — including documents you detached, which stay listed and marked so you can see what a reply was written over — and, under Proposed from a document, any record your companion has proposed from one: what it would write, whether it is still waiting for your decision, and which documents it was drafted from, including any that were cut. Show in the conversation takes you to its approval card, which is where you decide it.

Because the chat keeps that file, it is managed from the chat, not from the assets library. You may see it listed there, and it can be deleted, but it can't be renamed, moved, cropped or attached to a page — trying says the file came from a companion chat and is managed there.

Attaching a file from Google Drive#

The same Attach a file dialog offers Choose from Google Drive. The first time, the button reads Connect Google Drive: it opens Google in the same tab so you can connect your account, then brings you back to the chat. If your DMRealm server hasn't been set up for Google Drive, the button is off and says so.

• Google Drive's picker lists only files an attachment can read: Google Docs, PDFs, Word documents (.docx), PNG, JPEG or WebP images, and plain text, Markdown or JSON files. Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, folders and shortcuts aren't offered.
• A Google Doc is imported as text: Google exports it as Markdown, and it is read like a Markdown file of up to 10 MB. Its pictures are not read at all — not even the words inside them, which an uploaded scan would have read by OCR — and the card says how many were left out. Every other file keeps the limits above — 20 MB for a PDF or Word document, 10 MB for an image or a text, Markdown or JSON file.
• You can pick several files at once, up to the room the chat has left: 5 documents at once, counting any still being fetched or read. Each file you pick counts as one of your 10 attachments an hour.
• DMRealm can read only the files you pick. Connecting gives DMRealm access to the files you open with it through the picker, not to your whole Drive — so a file that wasn't picked there is refused, and the card asks you to pick it again with Choose from Google Drive.
• Each file you pick gets its card straight away. It says being fetched while DMRealm copies the file from Google Drive, then being read, then what was read. When something goes wrong the card says which step it was, with why and what to do next: couldn't be attached if the request was refused, couldn't be fetched if Google never sent the file, couldn't be read if the copy arrived but couldn't be read.
• If Google Drive's file picker won't open, the chat says why in words rather than just closing the dialog — in the Attach a file dialog while it is still open, and on the line just above the message box once the dialog has closed to make way for the picker. Check your connection, allow apis.google.com if a blocker stopped it, then try again.
• If DMRealm's access to your Google Drive has expired or was removed, the card says so and offers Connect Google Drive. If Google Drive can't be reached, pick the file again later. If the file is in your Drive trash, was deleted, isn't shared with you, or its owner doesn't allow downloads, the card says which.
• The Details panel's Documents section names a file from Google Drive as it is called there, and says a Google Doc was imported as text.

Attaching a link#

The same Attach a file dialog takes a link, as its last way in: paste a web address under Or attach a link, then choose Attach link. DMRealm fetches the page itself, once, when you attach it — and without your sign-in, so a page you have to be signed in to see can't be attached this way; paste its text instead. A link that isn't a complete web address starting with http:// or https:// is refused in the dialog before anything is sent.

• A link can bring in a web page, a plain text or Markdown file, or a JSON file (a DMRealm export). A web page is imported as its text: its headings, lists, tables and paragraphs are kept, and its pictures, scripts and styling are not — a page built by scripts may have no text to read at all. A PDF, a Word document or an image can't come from a link: download it and attach the copy from your device.
• The limits: a page of up to 20 MB, fetched within 15 seconds, following at most 3 redirects. A link also counts against the same limits as a file — 5 documents at once in a chat, counting any still being fetched or read, and one of your 10 attachments an hour.
• Links to private or local networks are refused — localhost, addresses inside a home or office network, and similar — and so are links that carry a user name or password, or name a port other than the standard web ones. The dialog says why, and the link stays there for you to correct, with the cursor back in it.
• The link's card appears as soon as the link is accepted. It says Fetching from the site's name while DMRealm fetches the page, then being read, then what was read. Once read, a page with a title gives the card its name, with the site beside it — so two links to the same site can be told apart. If the page can't be fetched — the site is down or too slow, says there's no page there, or sends a kind of file a link can't bring in — the card says couldn't be fetched, with why and what to do next; a page that arrived with no text to read says couldn't be read.
• The Details panel's Documents section says where each link came from: From a link, and the site's name.

When a document is being read#

A PDF, Word document or image is read after you attach it, not while it uploads. Its card says being read, and replies don't use it until reading finishes: a document with a text layer is usually read in seconds, but reading a scan takes a while — a long scanned PDF can take a few minutes. You can keep writing meanwhile; a reply sent before reading finishes says it was written without that document. Detaching a document that is still being read cancels it.

• Scanned pages and images are read by OCR — the text in them is recognised. A picture is not described: an image with no words in it has nothing to read.
• One file can have at most 100 scanned pages read by OCR. A PDF with more is refused before any page is read; split it into smaller PDFs and attach them separately.
• When reading finishes, the card shows what was read: how many pages, how many of them were read by OCR, and trimmed to fit if the file was too long to keep whole. A page that couldn't be read is named on the card, and so is a page that was only partly read, or only partly searched for scanned text, so a partial read never looks like a whole one.
• If a document can't be read — password-protected, damaged, with no text in it, more than one attachment can read, or a scan that needs more memory or processing time than one attachment allows — its card says why and what to do next, and Dismiss clears it from above the message box in this browser. A document that couldn't be read doesn't take one of the chat's 5 slots, and it stays listed in the Details panel.
• If reading stops before it finishes — for example because your realm's owner or admin took the file down, or the chat was archived — the card says so, and the document is not used. In a chat you can still write in, detach it to free its slot.
• The Details panel's Documents section shows the same thing in words for every document: being read, read, couldn't be read, reading stopped or reading cancelled.

When your companion asks to create a record#

Ask it to create or add something and an approval appears in the conversation instead of a change to your realm. The card shows exactly what would be created: the record type, its name and sections, who could see it, where it goes, what it costs, whether it can be undone, and how long the offer stands. Four choices carry equal weight and none is chosen for you.

• Approve creates the record as a private draft in your realm — it still needs your review, like every AI draft. The card then reports Dispatched and Created, with a link to the new record.
• Reject closes the request. Nothing is created.
• Dismiss sets the request aside without deciding; it stays in the conversation and expires on its own.
• Edit preview lets you change what the record would say — its type, name, summary, sections and tags. Saving makes a new preview with its own request; the earlier one can no longer be approved.

• A request expires 15 minutes after it appears. An expired request cannot be approved; ask again for a fresh preview.
• Only a click or a tap can approve. Speech cannot approve, and nothing is ever approved for you.
• If a document the request was drafted from is withheld or removed after you review it — your realm's owner or admin can take one down — nothing is written when you approve, and asking again will not use that document.
• The card keeps its request id and a content digest, so what was approved can always be matched to what was created.

When a document restates a record you already have#

If you ask for a record while documents are attached, DMRealm first checks whether this realm already has it: a record named in an attached DMRealm export is found by its id, and anything else by its name among records of the same type. When exactly one record matches, the approval asks to update that record instead of creating a duplicate. When several match, when the documents add nothing the record doesn't already say, or when the record can't safely take an import, nothing is proposed and the reply says why in a sentence.

• The card names the record being changed and why it was chosen, then lists every field with its existing value, the imported value and what will happen. The existing value wins for every field except the review status, which changes to Needs review: nothing else the document says replaces what the record already says.
• If an attached DMRealm export names the record by an id this realm doesn't have — an export from another realm, say — the card says so, and that the existing record with the same name and type was chosen instead. Check it is the one you mean.
• What the documents add arrives as one new DM-only section, shown on the card with the files it came from. A record whose description was written by hand keeps that description word for word as a Description section everyone who can read the record still sees.
• Approving marks the record Needs review, so readers without review rights can't see it until you approve the record again.
• Edit preview is not available for an update: the preview is worked out from the record as it is now. Reject it and ask again to change what is imported.
• Updating a record from a document needs DM clearance in the realm — the imported section is DM-only, and you need to be able to read it to review it or undo it.

Drafts and records#

Ask your companion to write or draft something and the result arrives as a draft beside the chat, marked as an AI draft awaiting review. Choose Open draft to read it: each section names who it is for, and Versions lists every earlier version with the changes described in words — you can restore any of them, which keeps the newer versions too. Promote to record turns the draft into a page in your realm, created as a private draft you approve like any other. The draft stays where it was as the record's source; promoting it again opens the same record.

Talking to the companion#

You can speak a message instead of typing it. Tap to talk sits beside Send. The first time you press it in a browser, a short sheet says what will happen: your take is sent to the companion service to be turned into text and the audio is not kept; the transcript is saved to this chat like a typed message; and the seconds you speak are recorded in the realm's operational ledger, which only its administrators can see. Nothing is recorded until you choose Allow and start, and the browser asks for the microphone only after that. Not now records nothing, and typing works exactly as before.

1. 1Press Tap to talk. The button reads Finish talking while it listens, with a level meter and a clock; a take is at most one minute and finishes for you at the cap.
2. 2Say your message, then press Finish talking. Press Escape instead to throw the take away — nothing is sent.
3. 3By default the transcript appears in the message box for you to read and fix, and the companion says Your turn was saved. Press Enter to send it like any typed message.
4. 4If you prefer, turn on Send spoken turns straight away in the Details panel's Voice section: a finished take then starts the reply at once, and the message is marked Spoken in the conversation. The choice is remembered on this device.

Under each reply, Read aloud has the companion speak it; the same button reads Stop while it plays. Only one reply plays at a time, nothing ever plays on its own, and a reply you have already heard replays without being made again.

The voice allowance#

Speaking and listening use a voice service that costs the realm something to run, so every person has an allowance of voice minutes per realm — spoken turns and read-aloud replies count against it in seconds; typing never does. The Details panel's Voice section shows how much of the grant remains as minutes, its state in words, when it resets, and the words the service uses for it: development grant — not pricing. This is a limit during development, not a bill. When it is used up, Tap to talk is disabled with that message and Read aloud says so; typing keeps working, and the grant renews on its own.

Some realms have hands-free voice turned on. Then the Voice section also offers Start voice session: the microphone stays open while the session is live, the companion notices when you finish a sentence, speaks its replies, and you can interrupt it by speaking or pressing Stop speaking — which stops the speech, never the work behind it. Pause listening (Alt+V) turns the microphone off until you press Resume listening; Mute microphone does the same as a switch; End session closes it. Even hands-free, speech never approves anything: an approval is always a press on the card.

Moving a voice session to another chat#

A voice session starts in the chat it was opened from — often a brand-new one, when you pressed Tap to talk on the workspace home. If it belongs elsewhere, move it: while the session is live, the Voice section in the Details panel (and the voice session bar, when you are hands-free) offers Attach to a chat…. A dialog lists the chats of yours in this realm that can receive it, newest first, with a search box; pick one and press Confirm attachment. Nothing moves until you confirm, and nothing is ever attached for you — there is no automatic mode.

• What moves: the session itself — its spoken and typed turns, the replies they started, any approvals, drafts and memory suggestions from those turns, and the voice seconds they used. Each moves once; nothing is copied.
• What never moves: the other chat's own conversation, its title, and anything you uploaded to it. The chat you attach to keeps everything it had, with the session's turns added after it.
• If the chat you started in held nothing but the session, it becomes an archived redirect: it stays in the list with that label and opening it takes you to the chat the session went to. A chat with a conversation of its own stays as it is.
• The dialog says how many of the realm's chats were left out — other members' chats, archived chats and temporary chats — as a count only. Their names and contents are never read to build the list.
• A move is refused, in words, while a reply is still being written or while an approval from the session is still waiting for your decision. Finish or reject the approval first; pending approvals are never carried across silently.

After the move the workspace opens the chat the session now lives in, and an attachment notice sits in its conversation with the label confirmed by you, the destination, and the details on request — what was moved, who confirmed it and when, and the note that the companion's next reply is built from the new chat only. From then on, speaking and typing continue in that chat.

What is stored#

• Your messages and your companion's replies, in the order they happened — a spoken turn as its transcript, marked as spoken, never as audio.
• When a run started, finished, failed, or was stopped, with a plain reason.
• Every approval you decided, when, and what it created; every draft and its versions.
• Which companion the chat was opened with, and when it was created and last updated.
• Each memory you save or forget, by its identifier, and each Helpful or Not helpful rating.
• Not stored in the chat's log: the prompt sent to the model — only a redacted record of the run. An operational usage record, visible to administrators only, does keep the prompt and reply text of each call until the chat is deleted; the Privacy section of the Details panel states this as the server reports it.

What the companion remembers and keeps#

Memory is a short list of durable preferences, facts and instructions your companion keeps for this account, across the chats of a realm. It is never shared with other members and never becomes a record in your realm. Your companion only proposes memories; nothing is remembered until you save it, and you can see and forget everything it holds at any time.

Memory mode: On

I may suggest saving durable preferences and facts, and use what I remember. This is the default for a new chat.

Memory mode: Off

Nothing from this chat is remembered, and I don't use what I already remember.

Memory mode: Temporary

This chat is kept out of your chat list and export; archiving it deletes it. Nothing is remembered. Start one from the New chat menu, or switch a chat to it in the Details panel; turn on Show temporary chats in the list to see them.

When a reply notices something worth keeping — you asked it to remember something, or stated a lasting preference — a small Remember this? card appears in the conversation with the wording, its kind, its scope (this account) and how sure it is, in words. Save keeps it; the pencil lets you reword it first. Not now sets it aside — it stays listed in the Details panel until it expires. Never suggest this forgets it and stops the same wording from being suggested again. If a suggestion looked like a sensitive personal detail, such as health or finances, the card only says so and keeps nothing; you can still add it yourself from the Details panel, where you confirm it deliberately. A chat whose memory is Off or Temporary cannot save a suggestion, even one that was already on screen.

The Details panel's What I remember section lists every saved memory with its kind, its source chat and turn, when it was last used and when it expires, plus any suggestions still waiting. Forget removes an item at once — the next reply cannot use it — and blocks the same wording from being suggested again. Remember something adds a memory in your own words, with a kind you choose; typing the same words again is your choice, so it lifts an earlier block.

Export chat, at the foot of the Privacy section, downloads the chat as one JSON file: the chat, its events, drafts with their versions, approvals with their decisions, and the memory drawn from it — never audio, the prompts sent to the model, or usage records. A temporary chat is not exported. Delete chat opens a confirmation that states exactly what will be removed, in the server's own words, behind one clear button. When it finishes you get a receipt in words: how many events, drafts and approvals were removed and that the usage records were redacted. If the receipt says some records could not be redacted yet, the chat itself is gone; try the delete again later for the rest. Deleting cannot be undone.

Under each reply, Helpful and Not helpful record a rating for that reply. Press the same one again to withdraw it. The rating is all that is kept — there is no note to write, and nothing you typed in the chat is attached to it.

The Details and Suggestions panels#

With a chat open, the Details panel in the context rail shows the chat's companion, when it was created and last active, and whether a run is in progress; Rename changes the chat's title, Memory mode switches the chat between On, Off and Temporary, What I remember lists and manages memory, the Drafts list opens any draft the chat produced with its versions, and Voice shows the voice allowance with the send-straight-away preference and, while a voice session is live, Attach to a chat…. Privacy states what is kept, with Export chat and Delete chat beneath it. The Suggestions panel lists the realm's open suggestions so you can apply or dismiss them without leaving the conversation. The Export panel copies the transcript or downloads the chat as a Markdown file.