# Build with Vera (/docs/indicator-apps/build-with-vera)



**Vera** is the AI assistant built into Ovidens. Describe what you want to create,
change or understand in your indicator app. Vera uses the tools available to you
for that request, without requiring a prepared knowledge base or a fixed setup
sequence.

## How to start [#how-to-start]

1. Open your indicator app, click **Open editor**, and open **Vera**.
2. Send a request, such as "Track monthly electricity use per site and calculate
   the percentage change from the same month last year".
3. Answer any focused question about missing metrics, units or rules.

Vera can work with [indicators](./indicators/input.mdx),
[dimensions](./dimensions/other-dimensions.mdx), [groups](./groups.mdx) and
[calculations](./indicators/formula.mdx) as your request needs. It shows progress
while working and finishes with a short reply about the result. If it cannot do
something, it explains the limitation and any work already completed.

## Continue your conversation [#continue-your-conversation]

Ask follow-ups such as "Add another site", "Use kWh as the unit" or "Explain that
calculation". Your recent requests, answers to Vera's questions and Vera's replies
provide context for the next message. Closing the panel or reloading restores the
conversation and any question waiting for your answer.

Your conversations belong to you within the workspace. Use **Conversation history**
to reopen an earlier thread, or **New conversation** to start a separate named
thread. You can rename it later. Full history is saved; **Load earlier messages**
opens older turns. Other users have their own conversations.

Vera automatically restores your last conversation only in the same app and within
6 hours of your last interaction. Otherwise it opens a blank chat, saved when you
send the first message. **Conversation history** opens a centered, searchable table
with page controls; you can manually reopen older conversations or a thread from
another app. Each message shows the app it started from, and the current page
provides context for your next request. Vera can work across apps your permissions
allow. **Stop this request** ends the current task; changing conversations alone
leaves its work running on the server.

## Give Vera useful context [#give-vera-useful-context]

* Name the metrics, units and collection frequency.
* Describe the breakdowns you need, such as region or site.
* Explain calculation rules and what should happen when a value is missing.
* Ask Vera how Ovidens works when you need guidance. It can consult the user
  documentation and link to the relevant instructions.

You can explain your rules directly in chat. If a key choice is ambiguous, Vera
asks before making that decision for you.

## Who can use Vera [#who-can-use-vera]

Chatting with Vera requires AI access on the app. You can ask questions without
permission to change the app's configuration. Each editing tool still requires
its own permissions, so Vera can change only what you are allowed to change and
what your enabled AI tools allow. See [roles](../administration/index.mdx).

You answer questions in your own conversation. Other people's requests and
replies are not part of your chat.

## Changes and publication [#changes-and-publication]

A requested structure change creates or reuses the app's draft. Asking a question
or requesting help does not create a draft. Review the result and click
**Publish**, or explicitly ask Vera to publish if that tool is available to you.
Otherwise its edits stay in the draft.

**Discard** removes everything changed in that draft, including values collected
while it was open. See
[Draft and publish](../overview/apps.mdx#draft-and-publish).

See [Interact with Vera](../tips/interact-with-vera.mdx) for outcomes, recovery and
AI usage.