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Getting help¶

You can get help without leaving the product. Which options you see depends on whether you work in Studio or Explorer and on how your deployment is set up.

Where you are	What you can use
Studio, left sidebar	The Resources group, which includes Support (chat), Report a Bug and Docs
Studio, right-hand panel	The Docs tab, which shows the documentation for the page you're on
Studio, Steward panel	Report a problem for the current Steward session
Explorer, under an answer	Report a problem for that answer
Error and blocked screens	Help, Contact support, Contact sales, Contact Actian or Contact us, depending on the screen

Availability

Who can do this: any signed-in member can send a report. The Resources group and the Docs tab are part of Studio, so you need Studio access to see them.
Deployment: support chat and the documentation links are available on Actian SaaS and on connected self-managed deployments where they are set up. On air-gapped self-managed deployments, Report a Bug is the only help option, and reports stay on your installation.

Explorer-only members

If you only have Explorer access, you don't see the Resources group. To tell Actian about a problem, use Report a problem under an answer (see Report a problem with an answer), or ask your administrator.

Help in Studio: the Resources group¶

The Resources group sits at the bottom of the Studio sidebar, below Manage.

Chat with support¶

In the Studio sidebar, under Resources, click Support.
The support chat opens in a messenger window. Type your question.

The chat is linked to your AI Analyst account (your user ID, and your email address and name when they are available), so the support team knows who you are. If AI Analyst can't confirm your identity, the chat still opens, but anonymously. In that case, include your email address and organization name in your message.

While the chat is loading, Support is greyed out. If the chat can't open, you see Couldn't open support chat. Please try again.

Report a bug¶

In the Studio sidebar, under Resources, click Report a Bug.
In the Report a bug dialog, describe what you did, what you expected and what happened.
Click Submit report, or press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac). Press Esc or click Cancel to close the dialog without sending.

Submit report stays disabled until you type something, and reads Submitting… while the report is sent.

The address of the page you're on is attached to the report automatically, so open Report a Bug from the page where the problem happened.

What happens next depends on your deployment. The dialog tells you which case applies:

The dialog says	What happens to your report	Confirmation
Tell us what went wrong. We'll get a Slack ping and open a ticket.	The report goes to Actian's support team, which may also open a support ticket for it.	Thanks! Your bug report has been sent.
Tell us what went wrong. Your report stays on this installation; an administrator includes it in the diagnostic export for Actian.	Nothing leaves your installation. The report is saved in your AI Analyst database, and your administrator can include it when they send a diagnostic export to Actian.	Thanks! Your bug report has been saved.

The second case applies to air-gapped self-managed deployments.

If no confirmation appears

If you click Submit report and the dialog stays open without a confirmation message, your report was not sent. This can happen when your report is longer than 5,000 characters, when you have sent several reports in a short time, or when reporting is temporarily unavailable. Shorten the text, wait a few minutes and try again, or use Support instead.

Open the documentation¶

Click Docs under Resources to open the AI Analyst documentation home in a new browser tab. To read the documentation next to your work, use the Docs tab instead.

Report a problem with an answer (Explorer)¶

Use this when an AI Analyst gives a wrong, incomplete or confusing answer.

In Explorer, open the conversation.
Under the answer, click Report a problem (flag icon).
Under What went wrong?, describe the problem.
Click Send report.

You see Thanks for the report. when it is sent.

Report a problem appears under each completed answer that has text and did not end in an error. It isn't shown in conversations that you can only view, such as a conversation someone shared with you in read-only mode.

Your report includes the page address and identifies the conversation and the answer, so the support team can look at the exact response.

If sending fails, you see one of these messages:

Message	What it means
You've sent several reports just now. Please wait a moment before sending another.	You reached the report limit. Wait a few minutes.
Problem reporting isn't available right now.	Reporting is not set up on this deployment. Contact your administrator.
Couldn't send your report. Please try again.	The report could not be sent. Try again later. If it keeps failing, your administrator may have turned off reporting for your deployment.

Report a problem with a Steward session¶

In Studio, open the Steward panel.
In the panel header, click the bug icon (Report a problem).
The dialog shows which session is attached, for example Session … will be attached to your report. Under What went wrong?, describe the problem.
Click Send report.

The Steward Report a problem button is available under the same support setup as Report a Bug: if you don't see Report a Bug in the sidebar, you won't see this button either. The rate-limit and unavailable messages are the same as for reporting an answer. The generic failure reads Couldn't send your report. Try again.

What is sent with a report¶

When your deployment sends reports to Actian, a report includes:

your email address, and your AI Analyst user ID when a support ticket is opened
the address of the page you were on
identifiers for your organization and environment
the text you wrote
for a Steward or Explorer report, identifiers for the session, or for the conversation and answer, when they belong to your organization

The report contains only the fields listed above. The identifiers point to the session or answer you reported.

On air-gapped self-managed deployments, nothing is sent: the report is stored on your installation only.

Limits¶

Length: a report can be up to 5,000 characters. The dialogs don't show a counter, so keep reports short and specific.
Duplicates: if you send exactly the same report again from the same page within about two minutes, it is not sent a second time. You still see the confirmation.
Rate limit: you can send about five reports in any 10-minute period. After that, wait a few minutes before sending another.

Reading the docs inside Studio¶

Studio's right-hand panel has three tabs: Steward, Graph and Docs. The Docs tab shows AI Analyst documentation next to your work.

In Studio, click Docs on the right edge of the window.
The tab shows the article that matches the page you're on. For example, on the Models page it shows the Models article.
To read another article, use the breadcrumb at the top of the tab, or click a link to another article.
To go back to the article for the current page, click Reset.
To open the article on the documentation website, click the external-link icon (Open on docs.actian.com).

Book icons elsewhere in Studio also open the Docs tab:

The book icon next to the Models, Metrics and Glossary titles opens the article for that area.
The small book icon in Studio's expression and SQL editors opens the Semantic SQL (SemQL) overview.

If no article matches the current page, or the article can't be loaded, the tab shows a Browse documentation heading with one menu for each documentation section, the message Docs for this page are still hiding in the bushes. and a Browse all docs button that opens the documentation home in a new browser tab.

How articles look in the Docs tab¶

The Docs tab shows a simplified version of each article. Styling is removed, so notes and warnings look like plain paragraphs, and some content, such as diagrams and embedded video, may not display as it does on the website. Use Open on docs.actian.com to see the full page.

Links behave like this:

A link to another article that the Docs tab knows opens in the tab.
A link to another page of the AI Analyst documentation opens in a new browser tab. So does a link you click while holding Ctrl, Cmd, Shift or Alt.
Links to other websites are shown as plain text.

When the Docs tab is not available¶

You don't see the Docs tab:

outside Studio, including everywhere in Explorer
if your browser window is narrower than 768 pixels (Studio then asks for a bigger screen)
while your organization is locked, for example while it is pending deletion
on air-gapped self-managed deployments

The Docs tab loads articles from docs.actian.com through your AI Analyst server. If your server can't reach docs.actian.com, the tab shows the Browse documentation view instead of the article.

Why you might not see Support, Report a Bug or Docs¶

You don't see	Likely reason
The whole Resources group	You only have Explorer access. The group is part of Studio.
Support	Your deployment is air-gapped, support chat is not set up for your deployment, or your operator turned support off.
Report a Bug (and the Steward Report a problem button)	Bug reporting is not set up for your deployment, or your operator turned support off. On an air-gapped deployment, Report a Bug is always available and saves the report on your installation.
Docs (sidebar link and right-hand tab)	Your deployment is air-gapped.

On a connected self-managed deployment, Support and Report a Bug appear only after your operator has connected the deployment to Actian support. Ask your administrator if an item you expect is missing.

When something goes wrong¶

We couldn't load AI Analyst¶

This screen appears when AI Analyst can't load your organizations or permissions after you sign in. It reads Something went wrong reaching AI Analyst or reading its reply. Try again — if this keeps happening, contact support.

Click Try again. The button reads Loading… while AI Analyst retries.
Click Help to open the documentation in a new tab.
Click Contact support to open the support chat.

This screen doesn't show error details. When you contact support, describe what you were doing and when it happened.

This screen reads We couldn't complete sign-in. Try again, or contact support if this keeps happening.

Click Error details to see the error code and message from the sign-in service.
To copy the details for support, click the copy icon next to Error details (tooltip Copy). The icon briefly changes to a check mark. If your browser blocks copying, expand Error details and select the text by hand.
Click Sign in to start again. This signs you out completely and returns you to the sign-in page, where you enter your credentials again.

Some sign-in problems, such as an expired browser session, don't show this screen: AI Analyst restarts sign-in for you automatically.

Air-gapped deployments

Help and Contact support can appear on Sign-in failed and We couldn't load AI Analyst even on an air-gapped deployment, where they can't reach anything. On an air-gapped deployment, contact your administrator instead.

Page not found¶

This screen reads We couldn't find the page you're looking for. It may have moved, or the link may be broken. It usually means an old bookmark or a broken link. The sidebar stays visible.

Back to Studio takes you to AI Analysts.
Back to Explorer takes you to the Explorer home page.

If you only have Explorer access and open a Studio link, AI Analyst takes you to Explorer instead.

No product access yet¶

This screen reads You are signed in, but your account has no Explorer or Studio role in this organization. Ask an administrator to assign you Explorer-only or Studio access.

Ask an administrator in your organization to give you access. See Members.
If you belong to more than one organization, use the organization switcher to pick another one.
Click Sign out to sign out.

Unless your deployment is air-gapped, the screen also shows Help and Contact support. Once an administrator gives you access, AI Analyst takes you into the product the next time it reloads your permissions.

This screen reads This organization requires single sign-on. Sign out, then sign in again through your organization's identity provider. Click Sign out, then sign in through your company's single sign-on.

Studio needs a bigger screen¶

Studio needs a browser window at least 768 pixels wide. On a smaller screen, click Go to Explorer, or open Studio on a larger screen.

When your organization is blocked¶

If your organization can't be used at the moment, AI Analyst shows one of these screens instead of the product:

Screen	What it means	Contact button
The trial for … has ended	The trial is over and product access is paused.	Contact sales
This organization is pending deletion	Product work is paused until the organization is restored or permanently deleted.	Contact us

The contact button opens the support chat. It is not shown on air-gapped deployments; there, contact your administrator.

On the trial-ended screen you can also switch to another organization, click Leave this organization, or click Sign out. On the pending-deletion screen you can switch to another organization.

What to include when you contact support¶

When you contact support, include:

what you were doing, what you expected and what happened instead
the address (URL) of the page, or the conversation you were in
the exact text of any error message
for sign-in problems, the copied Error details
roughly when it happened

Warning

Never include passwords, API keys, tokens or other secrets in a chat or report. If you shared a secret by mistake, rotate it straight away.