The assistant is an AI helper for support questions. It answers questions about Sentinel, your own sites and your own tickets, and it links the help article or site page that helps most under Source. It changes nothing on your sites or account. When it cannot solve a problem, it points you to the ticket form.

It is not available to everyone yet. Sentinel switches it on for chosen organisations first. When it is off for your organisation, there is no Ask the assistant row in the Help panel and no assistant card on the Get help page, and nothing else changes; use Support as described in this section. Any signed-in member of an organisation can use it, whatever their role or plan. It does not appear on the public website or in the admin console, and it is hidden while a platform administrator is viewing your dashboard as you.

Open and close the assistant

Select Help in the top bar, then Ask the assistant, the first row, which shows the shortcut and names the page it can share, or press Ctrl+/ (Cmd+/ on a Mac). The assistant has no button of its own in the top bar.
On the Get help page, select Start a chat on the Ask the AI assistant card.
The panel opens beside the page on a wide screen, and full screen on a phone. It stays open, with your conversation, when you move to another dashboard page.
Select Close assistant (the X) or press Escape. Focus returns to the Help button.

First use

The first time, the panel shows Get help from the assistant and what to know before you start:

Your messages are processed by OpenAI in the United States. OpenAI does not train on your conversation. OpenAI may hold a copy for up to 30 days to check for abuse.
Sentinel staff and an automated AI review can read these conversations to improve support, our help articles and the product.
Passwords and keys you type are removed before sending. Those inside images are not, so do not include them.
The assistant does not change anything on your sites or account.

Select Start, or Use the ticket form instead to go to Create ticket. Your choice to start is remembered for you in this browser, so another browser or device shows the notice again.

Chat

Type your question and press Enter to send. Press Shift+Enter for a new line.
Paste, drop or attach images (PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF), at most 5 per message and 10 per conversation. Use the Attach images button, and Remove image to take one off before you send. Images are converted to PNG. Do not send images that show passwords, keys or other secrets.
The answer appears as it is written. Links in an answer open only dashboard pages or the Sentinel site; any other address is shown as plain text, not as a link.
Under each answer, Source shows one link: the help article or site page that helps most. It is never a list. Below it the panel says "If this link is wrong, tell us what is wrong." Select tell us what is wrong and the message box fills with a start such as: The link "Page name" is wrong: . Finish the sentence and send it as usual. Nothing is sent until you do. Once the conversation has ended or hit a limit, "tell us what is wrong" is plain text, not a button. An answer with no page to show has no Source. Voice answers and conversations you open from Previous conversations show the same.
The panel says Answers can be wrong. Check before you act. A Ticket form link under the message box is always there.

Conversations

New conversation (plus button) ends this conversation and starts a fresh one.
Previous conversations lists your latest 50 conversations, for 90 days after they end, with their state (for example Open, Resolved or Ticket opened). Open one that is still going to carry on, or open an ended one to read it. Back to the conversation returns to the chat. With none, it says No conversations in the last 90 days.

When the assistant is paused or you reach a limit

The button stays and the panel shows the reason with Open the ticket form instead of the message box. This happens when:

Sentinel has paused the assistant for everyone.
One conversation reaches its spending cap (about US$5). The assistant then stops for the rest of the day; Start a new conversation is offered once it can be used again.
Your account, your organisation or the whole service reaches its usage limit for now.
Organisations covered by an owner's Black membership have a higher organisation daily limit and no organisation daily message count. The other limits still apply.
A run of off-topic messages puts the assistant on a short cool-down. If three off-topic remarks ended a voice call, you cannot start another call for 10 minutes and are asked to wait or open a ticket, but typing and dictation in the same conversation carry on.

If the panel cannot load your conversations, it says Your conversations could not be loaded; close and reopen it, or use the ticket form.

Share the page you are on

After your first message in a conversation, the assistant asks once: Share which page you are on? Choose Share for this conversation or Not now. Sharing is your choice, for this conversation only. After Not now, it does not ask again in that conversation.

While you share, the panel shows Sharing: , for example Sites › Updates, with a Stop sharing link. What is sent:

The page address, with anything that could be a secret removed.
The name of the screen.
Your window size and your browser name and main version.

Nothing you type on the page and no page content is sent. Each time you move to another page, the new page is sent, at most once every two seconds. Select Stop sharing and it stops at once. The assistant no longer reads the page, and it does not ask again in that conversation. If you are in a voice call, stopping sharing also ends the call, because the call may already have heard the page. You can start the call again. If you open a ticket from the chat, it carries the last page you shared, and only if you shared one. You can untick Include page on the draft.

Guided navigation (Next step)

The assistant can show a Next step card under its answer. It gives one instruction, a path such as Sites › Main site › Updates, and the words Click this link to go there: followed by the full link to that dashboard page. Click the link to go to the page. On a narrow screen the panel closes so you can see the page. In a voice call the link appears in the text panel.

Links in the assistant's answers work only for dashboard pages on its page list and for knowledge base articles. Any other dashboard path shows as plain text, not a link.
If the assistant says a link is there in a typed answer but none was shown, it adds the line Correction: I did not add a page link to this answer.
It can open only your own dashboard pages, such as the dashboard, sites, a site and its Overview, Updates, History and Setup tabs, organisations, members, connector keys, messages, reports, logs, audit logs, settings, integrations, billing, profile, support tickets, new ticket and the knowledge base.
It never opens a site you cannot see, or a site from another organisation than the conversation. In that case no card appears.
It never clicks or fills in anything for you. It does not highlight controls on the page.

Open a ticket from the chat

When you ask for a ticket, the assistant writes a draft for you. It can never open a ticket itself. The draft appears in the chat as a Ticket draft card marked Not sent yet. Nothing is sent until you select Open ticket.

The card shows:

The organisation and site the ticket will be for.
Subject and Details, which you can edit.
Thumbnails of the images you pasted into the chat, each with a remove button. Up to 5 images go to the ticket. Images you leave out stay with the conversation.
Include page: ..., a checkbox that appears only when the page you were on was shared with the assistant. Untick it to leave the page out of the ticket.

Choose what to do:

Select Open ticket to open one ticket. Selecting it twice still gives one ticket. A green note says Ticket SNTL-n opened. with a View ticket link, and the card says This draft was opened as a ticket. The chat then ends: This conversation ended when you opened the ticket. Support will reply on the ticket. Select Start a new conversation to ask something else.
Select Not now to put the draft away. The card shrinks to Draft kept, not sent. Select Show draft to bring it back.

If the ticket cannot be opened, the card says why and Your text is kept. with an Open the ticket form link. Reasons include too many new tickets in the last hour, you are no longer a member of the organisation, the site is no longer available, or the assistant is still writing its answer (wait, then try again). If the subject or details are blank, the card says Add a subject and details before you open the ticket.

On the ticket, Details shows Opened from: The assistant with a See the conversation link. The link reopens the conversation in the panel. Only the person who chatted sees the link, and only that person can read the ticket. Sentinel Support can read the conversation too, including the images, the pages it saw and what you changed in the draft.

To raise a ticket without the assistant, use Create a ticket.

Offered screenshots

Sometimes a picture explains a problem better than words. The assistant can show a card that says A screenshot would help. Take one of this tab? It may add a short reason. Nothing is captured unless you choose.

Select Take a screenshot. Your browser shows its own picker and permission prompt. Sentinel takes one picture and stops sharing your screen at once.
A preview appears. Click or drag over anything private to cover it with solid grey squares. Select Use to put the image in the message box. It is uploaded only when you send your next message. Select Discard to throw it away. Nothing is sent.
Select I'll paste one instead if you prefer. Paste with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac), or drop an image file into the message box.
If your browser cannot capture the screen (most phones and tablets), or you cancel or refuse the prompt, the card tells you to paste or drop an image instead.
While voice is busy, Take a screenshot is off and the card says why: Answer the voice notice below first., End the call first: images cannot be sent during a call., Stop dictating first. or Wait for your dictation to finish. The same reason shows beside Use in the preview. While the voice notice is showing, I'll paste one instead is also off, because the message box is hidden.
Once you open a ticket from the chat, or the conversation ends or reaches a limit, the card closes. Its buttons go and it says You can no longer add a screenshot to this conversation. Ticket drafts already open stay usable after a limit.

Images waiting in the message box (pasted, dropped, or a screenshot you used) stay there when you close the panel or open Previous conversations, and go with your next message. Opening the same conversation again keeps them. Starting a new conversation, opening a different one, switching organisation or signing out clears them. If a message is refused and you start a new conversation, your text comes back but its images do not. The text you were typing is not kept when you close the panel.

The usual limits apply: at most 5 images per message and 10 per conversation. Once a conversation has 10 images, the assistant does not offer the card. Cover anything private before you use a screenshot: passwords and keys inside images are not removed for you.

Talk or dictate (voice)

Voice is not available to everyone yet. It appears when Sentinel switches it on, and only where the assistant itself is available to your organisation. When voice is off, the panel shows no Talk button and no microphone icon, and typing works as described above. Any signed-in member who can use the assistant can use voice, whatever their role. You need a microphone and your browser's permission to use it; without them the panel tells you so.

Before you use voice for the first time in a conversation, the panel shows a notice: voice sends your microphone audio to OpenAI while the session is on, OpenAI may hold a copy for up to 30 days to check for abuse, in a call it also sees your IP address, Sentinel keeps the transcript and not the audio, and anything you say, including a password, reaches OpenAI as spoken. Select Start voice (or Start dictation) to go on, or Cancel.

Talk to the assistant

Select Talk beside the message box, read the notice and select Start voice.
Allow the microphone when your browser asks.
A bar appears with a level meter, the state (Listening, Assistant speaking or Muted), and the time. Speak normally; the assistant answers aloud.
Select Mute microphone (it becomes Unmute microphone) to pause what the assistant hears. Select End to finish.
Tick Show live transcript to read the words as they are spoken. The transcript is saved in the conversation like typed messages, so you can read it afterwards.

You can still type during a call, and your message goes to the call. Images cannot be attached during a call. Sentinel chooses the assistant's voice and how fast it speaks for everyone; you cannot change them.

What to expect in a call.

Spoken answers are short and calm. The assistant listens first and asks one short question when it needs one.
It never reads a link aloud and never lists links, titles or sources. When a page helps, one link shows in the text panel, with the line "If this link is wrong, tell us what is wrong." It works like the Source link under typed answers.
Say "stop" or "be quiet" and the assistant stops at once and stays silent until you speak to it again. A link it had not yet said is dropped.
If you talk to someone else, or to yourself, the assistant stays silent. It does not refuse or reply.
A refusal is said once, not repeated. Off-topic requests and attempts to misuse the assistant are still refused, and three off-topic remarks still end a call (see the limits below).

Dictate a message

Select the microphone icon (Dictate a message), read the notice and select Start dictation.
Speak for up to 60 seconds.
Your words appear as text in the message box. Edit them, then send as usual. Nothing is sent until you do.

Limits. One conversation has up to 10 minutes of voice. Your organisation has 30 minutes of voice a month (10 minutes on the free plan) and, separately, 30 minutes of dictation a month. Voice uses the same spending caps and daily lockout as typed chat. A call also ends:

with a spoken notice when it reaches a limit;
after 2 minutes of silence;
after three off-topic remarks;
when the Sentinel service restarts.

The panel shows the reason in one line and offers dictation if it is still available, then typing, then the ticket form.

If the session is changed from your browser during a call (for example by a browser tool or extension altering it), the call ends and the assistant is locked for you for the rest of the day. Use the ticket form until it is back.

Your data and the assistant

How long it is kept. Sentinel keeps a conversation, with its shared pages and images, for 90 days after it ends. A conversation you opened a ticket from is kept for as long as that ticket. It is all deleted when your account is closed or the organisation is deleted. Previous conversations shows them for those same 90 days. A conversation with a ticket stays readable from See the conversation on the ticket. Voice audio is not stored, only the transcript.
Who can read conversations. Sentinel staff and an automated AI review can read them to improve support, our help articles and the product. The review uses the same AI provider, may suggest drafts and product changes for staff to check, and does not change your account or make decisions about you.
Voice goes straight to OpenAI. During a voice call your browser connects to OpenAI directly, so OpenAI also receives your IP address, as well as your audio.
Typed secrets are removed, others are not. Passwords, keys and card numbers Sentinel can detect in typed text are removed before sending. They are not removed from images or from what you say aloud.

The full wording is in the Privacy Policy.