Part 7 · Platform, hosting and artificial intelligence

Gen, the assistant

Chat with the Gen assistant inside Symbifox, from the side panel or the full-width page, and set the frame for what it does.

Symbifox 18.0 (September 2026 catalogue) · Modules: Gen, Gen: Cockpit, Gen: consommation Claude dans le digest quotidien, LLM Provider, AI Bridge (socket transport) · Revised 2026-10-06

Watch it

Gen is the Symbifox assistant. You ask it a question in plain language, it searches your records, it answers, and it acts: it opens a task, writes to the file, corrects a record. It serves the whole team, from any screen, through a panel that opens on the right or through a full-width page. The artificial intelligence model is reached from your server, with the organization's key: nothing goes through a third-party service chosen on your behalf.

Overview#

Two places give access to the same assistant. The Gen button of the top bar opens a side panel, which follows the record you are reading. The Gen entry of the main menu opens a full-width page, with all your conversations on the left. Both follow dark mode when you turn it on, and the assistant's bubble takes on a tint of the organization's primary colour.

A conversation can also start from another application. In Email, 🪄 Envoyer vers Gen (send to Gen) opens a conversation linked to the email and has the situation update written in it in the background, without making you leave the inbox. An email that already has an active conversation gets that one back instead of opening a second one. The conversation then shows among the others, with the email's pill.

Here is that page on the Boréal demo.

Five notions structure the application.

• Conversation: an ongoing exchange with the assistant. It carries a title, belongs to the person who opened it and keeps its messages.
• Linked record: a conversation opened from the panel remembers the record you were reading. The panel then shows only the exchanges that concern that record; the full-width page shows them all. In both lists, a blue pill names that record and opens it in one click.
• Steering instruction: a short directive the assistant follows in all its answers, or only on one type of record.
• Turn: one question and answer round trip. It is the unit the administration counts, in tokens, in duration and in equivalent cost.
• Step: what the assistant does during a turn, such as reading a task or searching the mailbox.

What sets this approach apart: the assistant writes in Symbifox under your identity. A task it opens carries your name in the history, not that of an anonymous robot. It works on your real data, not on a copy exported elsewhere.

Configuration#

Access and permissions#

Chat is open to anyone who has an internal account: no particular group is required, and the Gen entry and the top bar button show for everyone. Each person sees only their own conversations.

The Administration submenu appears only to the people who hold the Settings level of Symbifox administration rights. That is where the screens live that show everyone's conversations, their consumption and the Claude accounts that pay for it. Other people's chat does not depend on them.

Settings#

The settings are in Settings › General Settings, Gen section. Nine things are set there.

• Gen Assistant turns the assistant on. Cleared, the entry and the button disappear.
• Live streaming writes the answer as it is produced. Turned off, the answer arrives in one block at the end.
• Conversations aim to close, cleared at first: at the end of each turn, Gen judges where the conversation stands and offers to archive it once everything is done (see Rename or archive a conversation).
• Proactive brief gives a situation update when a record opens: the first time the panel opens on a record with no conversation, the assistant reads the record, its chatter (the message thread at the bottom of a form) and its latest activity, then opens with a status update and suggested next steps, without waiting for a question.
• Model is the artificial intelligence model used.
• Max Turns is the maximum number of steps the assistant can chain for a single message. The higher it is, the more complex requests succeed, and the longer they take.
• API Key (optional) is the organization's application programming interface key. It is your subscription to the model provider, and it belongs to you: exchanges are billed to your account, not to the host's.
• Response Timeout is the delay after which an answer that does not arrive is abandoned.
• Gen's personality, in the Personality block, sets how the assistant speaks (see Set Gen's personality).

Base data#

Nothing is required to start. An organization that wants to frame the assistant's tone and habits sets its personality and writes a few steering instructions, described in Write a steering instruction.

Claude accounts are not created by hand: they register themselves at the first consumption reading sent by the server.

Getting started#

This walkthrough asks the assistant a first question about a record of the Boréal demo.

1. Go to Contacts and open the Clinique dentaire Rosemont record.
2. In the top bar, select Gen.
3. Read the status update the assistant writes by itself, and the label that recalls the current record.
4. Enter a question in the box at the bottom, for example “Which invoices of this client are still unpaid?”.
5. Send the question.
6. Watch the answer being written, with the status line naming the current step and the elapsed time.
7. Close the panel with the Escape key.

The conversation is kept. When you reopen the panel from the same record, you find it again; when you open the full-width page, it is there among all your conversations.

Common tasks#

Ask a question from a record#

The side panel serves to work without leaving the current screen.

1. Open the record you want, in any application.
2. In the top bar, select Gen.
3. Enter your question.
4. Send it.

During the turn, a status line and a timer show under the answer in progress. The line names the current step, such as “Reading the task”, then shows “Gen is writing” while the answer is written. While the assistant thinks, the line draws a fox phrase, such as “Gen is sniffing out the trail”.

The steps fold into a counter at the top of the bubble, “4 steps” for example, which you expand to read them again. When the service that talks to the model is up to date, a step shows the description Gen writes for its command. Otherwise, it keeps a generic label, such as “Running a check”.

You can leave the screen or reload the page during a turn: the answer carries on at the server and is saved. When you come back to the conversation, the screen picks the turn up where it stands. A conversation handles one question at a time: a question sent during a turn does not start a second one and goes back into the input area. To interrupt a turn, select Arrêter (stop).

The panel closes with the Escape key, with the close button, or by selecting the greyed-out area beside it.

Ask for an action rather than an answer#

The assistant writes in Symbifox: that is what sets it apart from a summary.

1. Open the panel from the record concerned.
2. Phrase the request as an instruction, for example “Open a follow-up task for Monday and assign it to me”.
3. Send it.
4. Expand the step counter at the top of the answer to see what the assistant read and wrote.
5. Open the record created or changed to check it.

The change carries your name in the record's history. An email, for its part, is prepared as a draft: nothing goes out until you have read it over and sent it. The step counter stays with the answer while the conversation is on screen; it is not brought back when you reopen the conversation.

Rename or archive a conversation#

A readable list of conversations is kept in two actions.

1. Go to Gen.
2. In the list on the left, open the conversation.
3. To rename it, select its title twice, enter the new name, then confirm. A name you give by hand is never rewritten by automatic titling.
4. To put it away, select the archive icon.

An archived conversation leaves the list without disappearing: an administrator finds it again in All Sessions with the archive filter.

When Conversations aim to close is ticked, Gen helps you tidy up. A conversation it judges finished shows 📥 in the list, and a bar under the exchange asks "Everything seems done. Archive this conversation?", with Archive and Not yet. A conversation that has been dormant for a while shows a moon and gets the same offer. The To follow button, at the top of the list, keeps only the conversations waiting for an action from you. Nothing is archived without your action, and an archive can be undone for five seconds.

Find the record a conversation is linked to#

A conversation opened from a record keeps its link to it. The list shows it in two ways.

1. Go to Gen, or open the side panel.
2. Look for the blue pill: to the right of the date on the full-width page, under the title in the panel. It gives the record's type and name, for example "Task · Renovate the waiting room".
3. Select the pill to open the record. With Ctrl, it opens in another tab. The conversation itself does not open.
4. To read the list by record rather than by title, select Records at the top of the list. Titles returns to the original view.
5. To see the other label on a single row, select the two-arrow icon on that row.

The choice between Titles and Records is kept on your account, so it follows you from one computer to the next. Flipping a single row lasts only while the screen is open, and changing the overall choice resets every row. A conversation with no linked record has neither pill nor arrows, and keeps its title, greyed out, in Records mode. The same goes when the record has been deleted or you are not allowed to read it: the list does not reveal that it exists.

Post a conversation to a task#

When an exchange has produced a decision, it belongs in the file rather than in a private thread.

1. Open the conversation in the full-width page.
2. Select the share to a task.
3. Search for the task by its name.
4. Choose it and confirm.

The conversation is posted as an internal note in the task's chatter. It stays readable there by the project team, even if the conversation is archived afterwards.

Set Gen's personality#

The personality sets how the assistant speaks on your instance, for everyone. You need the Settings level of administration rights.

1. Go to Settings › General Settings, Gen section.
2. In the Personality block, find Gen's personality.
3. Describe the assistant's name, tu or vous (informal or formal address), the default language, the length of answers and how it presents itself.
4. Keep the text under 2,000 characters.
5. Save.

The text applies from the next message, in the browser as in the mobile app, and comes before the steering instructions. Beyond 2,000 characters, saving is refused rather than the text being cut without your knowing. Left empty, the field lets the assistant speak in its usual way.

Write a steering instruction#

A steering instruction is a house rule the assistant follows without anyone having to repeat it.

1. Go to Gen › Steering Instructions.
2. Select New.
3. Enter a short Title, which serves only to find the instruction again.
4. In Instruction, write the directive the way you would say it to a colleague.
5. Choose the Scope: Every conversation or One record type.
6. Leave the Owner empty so that the instruction holds for everyone, or name a person so that it holds only for them.
7. Save.

The instruction applies from the next conversation on. Keep one idea per instruction: two rules in the same text soon contradict each other.

The form shows Block usage: the size of the block the assistant receives for this audience, against a ceiling of 4,000 characters. If the instruction makes the block overflow, the Over the steering ceiling warning appears before you even save. Shorten, archive, or drag the instruction higher in the list: the last ones are the ones left out.

Check that the instructions are consistent#

Beyond a handful of instructions, two of them end up saying neighbouring, or opposite, things.

1. Go to Gen › Steering Instructions.
2. Check the instructions to examine, or check none of them to take them all.
3. Select Check Coherence in the Actions menu.
4. Read the report: it opens on the space your global block of instructions takes up, then flags near duplicates and contradictions.
5. Correct or turn off the instructions involved.

The report changes nothing by itself: it flags, you decide. An instruction is turned off by clearing Active, which withdraws it from the composition without deleting it.

Follow the organization's conversations#

The administration screens serve to understand what is going on, not to read over people's shoulders.

1. Go to Gen › Administration › All Sessions.
2. Read the Title, User, Messages, Created, Last Activity and Active columns.
3. Open a conversation to see its messages in the Messages tab.

The tab gives the Role, the Content and the timestamp of each message. The Archive button puts the conversation away.

Each conversation also carries the Work category of the record it is linked to, which serves as a filter and a grouping here as in the cockpit: see Work categories.

Monitor the Claude accounts#

A Claude account is the subscription that pays for the assistant's exchanges. Its screen warns you before the ceiling as well as before a balance goes to waste. You need the Settings level of administration rights. This screen shows French labels in the English interface.

1. Go to Gen › Administration › Comptes Claude (Claude accounts).
2. Read the Compte (account), Forfait (plan), État (status), État de la sonde (probe status) and Dernier relevé (last reading) columns.
3. If needed, filter with Plafond en vue (ceiling in sight) or Solde qui va se perdre (balance about to be lost).
4. Open an account, then the Fenêtres (windows) tab.
5. For each window, read Utilisée (%) (used), Bascule (Montréal) (reset, Montréal time) and Reste (h) (hours left).
6. If needed, adjust the account's Seuils (thresholds).
7. Save.

The list shows Plafond en vue in red, Solde qui va se perdre in orange and Sans relevé utilisable (no usable reading) in grey. An archived account leaves the list, but its readings keep arriving.

The menus, one by one#

The application bar shows three entries: Gen, Steering Instructions and Administration.

• Gen: the full-width chat page. On the left, your conversations with their date and, where there is one, the pill of their linked record, under the Titles | Records switch; on the right, the current exchange. The New Chat button opens one, from the column as well as from the centre of the page when nothing is selected.
• Gen › Steering Instructions: the house directives, with the Title, Scope, Record Type, Owner and Active columns. The screen is empty on the demo and shows its help text, which recalls that you keep one idea per instruction and restrict an instruction to a record type when it only makes sense there.
• Gen › Administration: grouping menu with no screen of its own, visible to administrators only.
• Gen › Administration › All Sessions: all the conversations of the instance, a single one on the demo. The columns say who spoke, how many messages were exchanged and when.

• Gen › Administration › Comptes Claude: one subscription per row, with its plan, its status and its last reading. The filters isolate accounts near the ceiling, those whose balance is about to be lost, those with no usable reading, and archived ones. Administrators only (screen not illustrated).

The Gen button of the top bar is not a menu entry, but it is the shortest path: it opens the side panel from any Symbifox screen.

Reference#

Fields of the Instruction form#

Fields of the Conversation form#

Fields of the Claude account form#

The four values of État read as follows.

• Sous les seuils (under the thresholds): no window reaches its threshold, and no balance is at risk of being lost.
• Plafond en vue: a window reaches its threshold.
• Solde qui va se perdre: the week resets soon with little of it used.
• Sans relevé utilisable: the last reading failed or carries no window.

Reports and exports#

The application produces no report. A conversation is posted to a task as an internal note, which is the intended way to keep a shared trace of it. Lists export through Actions › Export.

Automations#

• The assistant opens by itself with a status update the first time the panel opens on a record with no conversation, when that setting is turned on. This request is made in your name and does not appear in the panel.
• The title of a conversation is suggested automatically from its content. A conversation opened on a record with the situation briefing takes the record's name. Each day, a conversation active during the week that has grown by three exchanges since its last title is renamed from its first and last questions. A name given by hand is never rewritten.
• A conversation whose answers fail several times in a row starts again on a fresh thread at the next message, instead of staying stuck. An administrator resets the counter to zero once the cause is understood.
• A turn that stops along the way, on a timeout, a step limit or an overloaded provider, resumes by itself on the same conversation, twice at most, without redoing actions already done. The screen says so with “Gen reprend là où le tour s'était arrêté” (Gen picks up where the turn stopped). Nothing resumes after Arrêter, or when the subscription limit is reached.
• When conversation closing is turned on, a nightly pass leaves a follow-up in a conversation that has had no news for two days, only one per quiet period. A conversation Gen has never judged becomes "Dormant".
• Every two minutes, a turn left without follow-up, after a server restart for example, is picked up and its answer saved.
• The steering block stops at the last whole instruction that fits under the 4,000-character ceiling.
• A Claude account registers itself at its first reading. Each reading replaces the previous windows; a reading that fails keeps the old ones and gives the reason.
• An account's État is assessed again at every display, since the approaching reset changes it.

Public pages and portal#

The application has no public page and no portal page. It exposes addresses reserved for signed-in people, including those that serve the mobile app: a question asked from the phone is saved right away, processed in the background, then picked up by the device when it is ready. The phone therefore does not have to hold the connection open, and the device uses its existing mobile session rather than one more account. See Mobile apps and browser extension.

Modules that extend this application#

The next two modules sit underneath the assistant and have no menu of their own in Gen.

The last one works out of sight.

Understanding#

Why the answer is written as it goes. A request that triggers several searches takes time. Making someone wait in front of a frozen screen feels like an outage, and an answer lost at the end of the timeout means starting over. By writing as it goes, the assistant shows its work and keeps what has already been produced even if it does not have time to finish. The server holds the turn and saves it, not your browser: a reload, a network cut or a restart no longer loses the answer.

Why a status line rather than a list of tools. A turn can chain a dozen steps over more than a minute. One chip per tool buried the answer without saying what was going on. While thinking, the model does not deliver the content of its thought: for lack of anything better, the line draws a fox phrase.

Why the personality sets only the tone. A text field must not be able to widen what the assistant is allowed to do. Text that is too long is refused rather than cut, because a cut would go unnoticed.

Why an instruction too many is left out whole. A block sliced mid-sentence would hand the assistant half a directive, read as a whole one. Better an instruction left out, and flagged by Block usage, than a truncated one.

Why the panel filters by record. When you open the assistant from an invoice, last week's twenty conversations are of no use to you. The panel shows only what concerns the current record; the full-width page remains the place where everything can be found.

Why a fresh thread after several failures. An exchange can get stuck on content that makes every retry fail. Rather than leave a conversation broken for good, the assistant starts again on a fresh thread at the next message. The conversation stays readable; only the continuity with the model is cut.

Why consumption is visible. Artificial intelligence is paid for by use, and use is usually invisible until the bill arrives. The counters separate new work from reread context, which costs far less and inflates the totals without matching any effort. The cost shown is a yardstick against the public rate, not an invoice.

Why a missing window is not a window at zero. A row at zero would read “nothing used” where it should read “not measured”: an unmeasured window therefore has no row. The reset shows in Montréal time, so that it does not depend on the time zone of the person looking. The balance about to be lost matters as much as the ceiling: it is paid-for plan left unused.

Why the key belongs to you. The subscription to the model provider is the organization's. Exchanges are therefore billed to its account, and the content travels between your server and the chosen provider, with no detour through an intermediary service. An instance without a key calls no one.

What the assistant does not do. It sends no email of its own initiative: it prepares a draft. It sees only what your account is allowed to see, since it acts under your identity. And it does not guess which organization is calling it: the setting that says so has no default value, precisely so that a badly set instance fails instead of answering with another organization's data.

Troubleshooting#

See also#

• Settings and brand identity
• Signing in and finding your way
• Mobile apps and browser extension
• Discuss
• Project
• Helpdesk (tickets)
• Forge (no-code customization)