AI assist
Ask about a notebook from inside it — explain an error, write or rewrite a cell, find the table you need — within limits your organisation sets.
AI assist is an add-on. An owner of your organisation turns it on and decides how much it may spend; your role decides what you may ask it for.
Asking a question
Click the AI assistant button — the sparkles icon — in the notebook toolbar. The chat panel opens under the notebook with the cursor in the message box. Click the button again to hide it; your browser remembers whether it was open.
In the panel's header:
- Effort: Quick, Standard or Deep. Deeper effort uses a more capable model and costs more per question.
- Context: how much the assistant is shown with your question. Notebook is this notebook; Database adds table schemas; Catalog adds schemas and lineage from across the catalog.
- Once applies the choices above to your next message only, then goes back.
- Clear discards the conversation. Your notebook and its compute are not touched.
Choices your organisation's plan does not include are greyed out. A choice your role does not include (see Who may do what) is refused when you send the message, with the reason.
The notebook must be saved before you can ask about it. On an unsaved notebook the button is disabled.
When the button is dimmed
A dimmed button means AI assist is not available to you. Click it to find out why:
| Reason | What to do |
|---|---|
| AI assist is not on your organisation's plan | If you are an owner, clicking takes you to the plan page to set it up. Otherwise, ask an owner. |
| Your role does not include AI assist | Ask an admin to change your role. |
| Your account is not in an organisation | Ask an admin to add you to one. |
If your organisation's allowance for the period is used up, the button is not dimmed. A banner at the top of the notebook says when the allowance resets.
Setting up and changing the plan
Owners only. Open AI plan in the platform — search the command palette for AI Assist Plan & Limits. If AI assist has never been set up, the page says so: fill in the form and choose Set up AI assist. Nothing is spent until AI assist is on for this organisation is ticked.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| AI assist is on for this organisation | The master switch. Off stops every question before anything is sent; your limits are kept for when you turn it back on. |
| Token allowance per window | Input and output tokens across everyone. 0 means unlimited. |
| Monthly spend cap (USD) | Questions stop when the window's spend reaches this, rather than being billed past it. 0 means no cap. |
| Allowance window starts on, Window length (days) | Usage resets at the end of each window. Windows roll forward from the start date, so align it with your billing period. |
| Most context a question may include | The largest Context members may choose. |
| Requests per minute, per person | Stops a runaway loop within seconds. 0 turns the throttle off. |
| Effort levels | Which efforts members may choose. At least one is required while AI assist is on. |
While AI assist is switched off, the limits are hidden and left as they were. Turning it off asks you to confirm, because everyone loses the assistant straight away.
Some limits may come with your subscription instead of being set here. Those fields are greyed out and say Set by your subscription; they update automatically, and a change to them has to come from Sown Data. You can still change every other field.
Usage
Once the plan exists, the top of the plan page shows the current window: tokens used against the allowance, spend against the cap, and the number of questions answered. A bar turns amber at 80% and red when the limit is reached. Only answered questions count — a question that failed before the model replied costs nothing.
Usage by person, for owners and admins, breaks the window down by member and by effort. Everyone can see their own: search the command palette for My AI Usage.
Who may do what
AI access is set by organisation role. The plan's limits apply on top: a role can narrow what the plan allows, never widen it. To change what someone may do, change their role on the members page.
| Capability | Owner | Admin | Member | Viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ask the assistant | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Choose an effort level above Quick | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Include the notebook as context | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Include database schemas as context | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Include the whole catalog as context | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Include columns classified as sensitive | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| See the organisation's AI spend | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |
| Change the plan | ✓ | — | — | — |