Assistant

Assistant Overview

Assistant is the main day-to-day workspace in August. Use it to ask questions about documents, folders, or the web, then keep refining the work in one continuous thread. Every output includes citations that trace back to source documents, so you can verify before you rely.

This video demonstrates how to query in Assistant.

What Assistant is For

Assistant brings research, analysis, and drafting into one place:

  • Ask focused questions about uploaded materials.

  • Generate first-pass drafts and summaries from matter context.

  • Continue follow-up analysis without losing prior context.

  • Move into structured outputs such as playbooks or tabular reviews when needed.

How to Work Effectively in Assistant

Follow this standard query flow to get the best results from Assistant:

1

Attach Context

Drag and drop files, or click Add to upload files or add folders, tabular reviews, agents, or playbooks. The right materials in context improve output quality.

2

Pick a Mode

Leave the mode on Auto for most work, or switch to Manual to choose exactly which actions August takes. See Choosing the Right Mode.

3

Ask Your Question

Type or dictate your question. Type @ to add context and / to use Skills, your saved instructions. Press Enter to submit, or Shift+Enter for a new line.

4

Verify

Click any citation to jump to the source. Traceable claims let you validate before you rely.

5

Refine

Follow up with additional questions. Adjust scope, tighten language, and iterate until you have what you need.

Chat Behavior

When you're working in Assistant, the chat interface is designed to stay stable as you type and submit questions:

  • Composer expansion: As your input grows longer, the composer expands without pushing earlier messages out of view. The conversation stays anchored where you were reading.

  • Initial positioning: When you open an existing conversation, August positions the most recent question at the top of the viewport so you can pick up where you left off.

  • Approval pauses: Before actions such as creating a draft or tabular review, moving files, or deleting a draft, August pauses and shows an approval card. You approve or reject it before the conversation continues. See Tool Approval in Assistant Chat.

Adding Context: Documents, Folders, and Artifacts

Click Add in the composer to bring material into the chat:

  • Upload files for documents the task needs.

  • Add from folders when document sets need to be analyzed together.

  • Add tabular reviews, Add agents, or Add playbooks to reference existing work.

Use @mentions and search to pull in specific items quickly. Keeping the right materials in context improves output quality and consistency.

This video demonstrates folder creation and upload.

Writing Effective Prompts

Use this formula: Task + Context + Format.

  • Task: What you want August to do (summarize, review, draft, compare, identify).

  • Context: Background details such as document type, jurisdiction, deal stage, and audience.

  • Format: How you want output structured (bullet points, table, memo).

Example: "Summarize this agreement and provide the key commercial risks in bullet points."

Prompt Tips

  • Be specific: Tell August exactly what you need.

  • Provide context: Mention document type, jurisdiction, or deal stage.

  • Ask for structure: Request bullet points, tables, or numbered lists.

  • Break complex requests: Ask one focused question at a time.

  • Use follow-ups: Refine or drill down into initial responses.

Operating Modes

New chats start in Auto, which picks the tools each task needs. Manual limits a turn to the actions you switch on in its Create and Research menus. For the full comparison, including Agent and Genius Mode, see Choosing the Right Mode.

Creating Outputs from Chat

Assistant can create structured work product directly from conversation:

  • Agent drafts: Describe a repeatable task and August proposes an agent draft card. Review the proposed steps, edit as needed, and press Save to create the agent. See Creating Agents from Assistant for details.

  • Drafts: First-pass memos, summaries, or document drafts built from matter context. August offers an editable draft in a side panel, a Word document, or an answer in chat. See Drafts.

  • Office files: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files you can download. See Genius Mode Overview.

  • Playbooks: Upload precedent agreements and ask August to extract standards. The resulting playbook captures preferred positions, fallback language, and red flags for reuse.

  • Tabular Reviews: Describe the extraction objective in natural language. August sets up rows and columns from chat context, which is useful for first-pass diligence and multi-document analysis.

Review generated structures before reusing broadly. Refine fields, scope, and naming to match your team's standards.

Iteration Workflows

Work in short, scoped passes rather than trying to complete everything in one prompt:

  1. Start with orientation: "What are the key issues in this document?"

  2. Validate citations and source support.

  3. Refine with targeted follow-ups: clarify reasoning, tighten language, adjust scope.

  4. Share outputs only after validation and context checks.

This pattern preserves quality under time pressure.

Research runs in the same chat as analysis and drafting. If your firm has legal research enabled, choose which countries and official sources August searches: in Auto, click Research in the composer; in Manual, open Research → Legal Research. Once you limit the sources, research stays within them. To include the open web too, turn on Web Research, mention @Web Search in your message, or paste a URL.

Use AI for orientation, issue framing, and comparisons across authorities. Treat AI as a first pass and verify the underlying authority before relying on conclusions.

Organizations configured for a jurisdiction get answers grounded in that jurisdiction's law by default. See the country guides, such as Indian Legal Research with August.

Why Citations Matter

Assistant workflows are built around source-grounded output. Inline citations help you trace an answer back to the document support behind it.

Before you rely on a conclusion, open the cited material and confirm that the answer matches the source. For more on validation, read How August Handles Sources and Citations.

When to Stay in Assistant vs. Move On

Stay in Assistant when the task is conversational or iterative. Move to another feature when the work needs a more specialized format:

Was this helpful?
Was this helpful?