Interact with Vera

Vera is the AI assistant built into Ovidens. It is the no-code way to get things done: you describe what you want in plain language, and Vera does the work, whether that is building a whole app or making one small change. You will find Vera in the Vera (AI) panel in analytic and indicator app editors.

What to ask Vera

Vera can handle most of the things you would otherwise build by hand. For example, you can ask it to:

• build an app from a description of your data and your goal,
• add a widget to the Visualisation, such as a chart of revenue by month,
• write a transformation, so you do not need to know SQL,
• build a calculation that works a new metric out from the ones you collect,
• explain the data, to help you understand what an app is showing,
• write or update documentation in the Knowledge Base,
• explain how Ovidens works, with links to the user documentation.

Vera uses the tools enabled for you and allowed on their targets. It chooses the steps your request needs. If a tool or permission is missing, it says so briefly.

How to phrase requests well

Vera does its best work when your request is clear and well supported. A few habits help:

• Be specific. "Total revenue by region for this year, as a bar chart" gives Vera far more to work with than "make me a report".
• Give context directly in chat. Explain what your columns mean and the rules you want to use. The Knowledge Base can help when relevant, but preparing it is optional. Ask Vera to document a rule if you want it saved there.
• Attach a file when it helps, for example a sample spreadsheet so Vera learns your column names.
• Answer Vera's questions. When it pauses to ask for a detail, your answer guides the rest of its work.

Keep the conversation going

A request is one turn in your conversation. When Vera finishes, send a follow-up in the same message box, for example "Make that chart blue" or "Explain the last calculation". Your recent requests, clarification answers and Vera's replies help it understand what you mean. For a much older topic, restate the important details.

Your conversations are personal to you within the workspace. Conversation history opens a centered table with titles, the initial app context, creation time, last activity and last opening time. Search by title and use the page controls to browse the archive; only one page is loaded at a time. Choose Select beside a conversation to reopen it. New conversation creates another named thread, and Rename conversation changes its title. Full history is saved; Load earlier messages lets you read older turns.

Vera automatically reopens your last conversation only in the same app and within 6 hours of your last interaction. Opening the panel or background polling does not extend that window. Otherwise you start with a blank chat; its conversation is saved when you send the first message. You can manually open any older conversation from history, including one started in another app. The current page provides context for your next request. Vera can use tools on other apps when your permissions allow it; if the target is ambiguous, it asks which app you mean.

An unsent message is kept in this browser tab for the selected conversation, or for the current app before the first message, separately for each user and workspace. Changing conversations does not cancel a running task. Choose Stop this request if you want to stop it.

Your full conversation history remains available for browsing. When you continue, Vera uses the latest saved rolling memory and recent messages, including after a few days. Earlier messages are for browsing; continuing uses the app's current state and current workspace model. Memory compression can lose detail, so restate an important fact if Vera no longer has it in context.

Vera condenses older context as it approaches the selected model's available context capacity, rather than after a fixed number of chat messages. Tool results also occupy context, so the visible message count alone does not describe its size. Condensing changes the working memory sent to the model; it does not delete the saved conversation. The current instructions and authorized tool definitions remain available on every request. If an older tool-discovery result leaves working memory, Vera can discover the current tools again.

How Vera works

Vera shows progress while working. It reads relevant context and uses available tools according to your request, without a fixed sequence of setup steps. It asks a focused question if an important detail is ambiguous, then waits for your answer. Clear requests can proceed without a confirmation round.

Vera finishes with a short answer about what happened or what it could not do. The Details button opens a dialog with a separate AI usage section, timestamps and one steps timeline. Progress and actual tool results appear together; a failed attempt shows its operation, target and reason, and a later success stays a separate attempt. Ordinary progress carries no success claim. Older tool records without an event time say that the time was not recorded. The dialog does not repeat your message or Vera's answer.

Requested edits create or reuse the app's draft and follow the same authorization, audit and versioning rules as manual edits. Asking for help or an explanation does not create a draft. Review changes before publishing; Vera publishes only when you ask and the publication tool is enabled for you.

Visualisation saves cannot overwrite a newer shared app state. The editor pauses while an AI write is active or shared changes are being refreshed. If a refresh fails, editing stays paused until the retry succeeds. This app-wide coordination does not expose another person's private conversation.

Vera searches a bundled copy of the public user guides and reads relevant passages through documentation tools. It has no general internet-browsing tool. The bundled guides are updated with the application release; Vera does not fetch the live site when answering. Source links are underlined and open in a new tab, including plain URLs, so you can read them without leaving your conversation.

Uploaded files

Files attached to sent requests remain private and currently have no automatic age-based expiry while their history records exist. Sending or importing a file does not delete its original bytes. Abandoned uploads that were never sent become eligible for cleanup after 24 hours. Deleting an app preserves your private conversation and its source files.

Chat attachment chips currently show the file name and size, without a download action. A dataset export downloads the imported data, rather than the original workbook or document. The six-hour conversation-restoration window does not delete history or uploaded files.

Task details and version history

Open Details beside the response timestamp to inspect tokens, step results and times. Messages show when requests were sent and responses finished; clarification questions and answers use their recorded times. Conversation history shows when the conversation started, when its saved metadata was updated and when you last opened it. On compact screens, Vera fills the screen; use Close to return to the editor. Resizing back to desktop keeps your saved pane width and draft.

Open the compact Autonomy menu beside the attachment button inside the composer to choose how independently Vera acts with its slider: 0 · Ask first, 4 · Balanced (the default), or 9 · Independent, with intermediate levels. You can choose the level before sending the first message. This private conversation setting applies to new chat requests. Important missing business details still prompt a question at every level.

The version history shows Version publisher, Version contributors and AI models and clients directly in both the Versions and Runs tables. The contributor list records people and AI involved in changes made for that version. Each model appears with the person who instructed it; an external AI connection shows its client name because its exact model is not reported. In the Runs table, these columns describe the linked version, whose number and name appear in the row. Contributors are not copied from an inherited or restored base.

Version history has no coarse AI icon or link to a private Vera task. The app's change audit remains available where your permissions allow it. If you publish a draft that Vera helped edit, the publication is yours. Finishing a Vera request does not require or force publication.

Attach original data files

You can attach the original CSV (up to 512 MiB) or Excel .xlsx file (up to 64 MiB) to a message. Convert older .xls files to .xlsx first. The upload remains private until you ask Vera to import selected data into the shared app; the browser does not recreate the file's rows as chat text.

You can also attach documents, such as a PDF, and ask Vera to read, summarise or answer questions about them. Reading an attachment does not add it to the knowledge base or change the app. Ask explicitly if you want information imported or saved.

Pending page and title edits are saved before Vera starts from them. If a save fails, your request stays in the composer. When someone else changes a saved page or layout, your editing copy is kept: choose Load saved to use their changes, or explicitly replace the saved copy with yours. Unsaved skill changes stay in your form; Vera uses the saved skill until you save them.

Ask for help with Ovidens

You can ask "How do I upload data?", "How do I publish this app?" or "What does an indicator dimension do?". Vera can consult the maintained user documentation and link to the relevant guide. You do not need to copy a help page into your app's knowledge base to ask about it.

Model and data processing

Vera uses Anthropic's API directly. A workspace administrator chooses one model: Claude Haiku 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5 (the default), or Claude Opus 5.5. Every chat, AI widget and internal AI task uses that workspace model. New and resumed requests use the current setting, including in older conversations. AI processing is not limited to the EU. Your request, relevant conversation context, attachments and tool results may reach the provider. See AI transparency for processing details.

AI widgets are read-only

An AI widget runs a reusable task against the app's existing configuration and published data. It returns an answer without changing data or configuration, running the pipeline, publishing, or creating a draft, even if the person using it has permission to edit the app. A preview can read an existing draft skill without changing it. A widget request needing a change receives a short explanation that it cannot make that change.

Widget answers are separate from your conversation in the Vera panel.

When Vera cannot finish

Vera gives a brief reply explaining what it could do or what stopped it. If a closing reply is unavailable, a short explanation appears instead. Open Details for recorded tool attempts, their reasons, token usage and times. Earlier failed attempts remain visible even when a later attempt succeeds and the task completes.

An Internal AI request error means the provider could not accept the request Vera prepared. Try again; contact Ovidens support if it keeps happening. This is reported separately from unavailable AI connections, missing configuration or a busy provider. Details remains available even if the request failed before its first tool call. If token usage was not recorded, the dialog says so; its counters do not establish the provider's full usage.

Continue in the normal message box to supply a missing detail, rephrase a request or try again. Requested edits remain in the app's draft until you publish or discard them; review those changes through the app's own controls.

If your connection drops

A lost connection does not stop Vera: the request keeps running on the Ovidens side. If the panel cannot reach Vera for a moment, it says Lost connection to Vera - retrying and keeps trying. If it still cannot reach Vera after a while, it says Couldn't reach Vera. The run may still be going. and offers a Check again button, which picks the request up wherever it has got to.

When the Vera panel is closed

In an analytic app's editor, the Vera button shows a small dot while the panel is closed: blue while Vera is working, amber when Vera is waiting for your answer, and red when a request ended without doing everything you asked. The red dot stays until you open the panel.

Vera knows the system, not your use case

Vera understands Ovidens inside out: how pipelines, indicators, and the Visualisation work, and how to build them. What it does not automatically know is your business, your data, and what you are actually trying to achieve. Give it that context and it can build very quickly and very well; leave it out and it has to ask you for missing details.

So before you send a request, ask yourself whether you have told Vera everything it needs from a business point of view: what the numbers mean, which rules apply, and what a good result looks like. Putting that context in your request, or in the Knowledge Base when useful, is the single biggest thing you can do to get a better result.

And like any AI, Vera can make mistakes. Everything it builds lands in your app's draft, which viewers do not see until it is published, so always check its work before you rely on it, especially the logic behind an important number.

A note on AI usage

Working with Vera uses AI credits, which your workspace has a monthly allowance of. You can see how much you have used on the Administration page. If the monthly limit is reached, AI features pause until the allowance resets at the start of the next month, while the rest of the app keeps working as normal.

Vera requests five-minute prompt caching for reusable input. Cache reuse depends on the provider, an unchanged input prefix and the cache lifetime; saved chat history is separate from that temporary cache. Condensing memory can require a new cache write and another model call, so a shorter context is not always cheaper.