Smart Chat

Smart Chat is a Laserfiche AI chatbot that enables you to find information and insights about your documents faster and easier by typing simple, natural-language questions. Smart Chat can also answer questions about Laserfiche in general.

Using Smart Chat

Laserfiche Smart Chat has two modes: ask mode (which allows you to ask questions about Laserfiche and your documents), and agent mode (which allows you to perform actions on your repository). To use Smart Chat, select the Laserfiche AI icon (The Laserfiche AI button.) in the header. Smart Chat can be used in the following places in Laserfiche:

  • To answer questions about and perform actions on documents and folders in your repository: The document viewer, folder browser, or search results page of the Repository Web Client

  • To answer questions about your workflows: An open workflow on the Workflow Designer page in Process Automation

  • To answer general questions about Laserfiche using educational resources: Any of the above locations, plus all other Repository Administration and Process Administration pages

In the Repository Web Client, select Ask in the lower left to use Smart Chat to answer questions, or select Agent to use Smart Chat to perform actions. (Since Smart Chat can only be used to ask questions in other applications, this option is not available.) By default, Smart Chat will include the contents of any selected folders, and the contents of their folders, and so on. You can toggle this option on or off by selecting the Include the contents of the selected folders button (The "Include the contents of the selected folders" button.). You can also toggle the Include educational resources button (The "Include educational resources" button.) to determine whether or not to include educational resources in the answer. If the answer provided by Smart Chat includes code or syntax (such as an advanced search), you can use the Copy button to copy that portion of the answer.

Note: Smart Chat has a limit of one thousand entries that can be queried at once. If you select more than one thousand entries, or if you select one or more folders containing more than one thousand entries cumulatively, Smart Chat will notify you that the answer is based on partial results, and respond based on the first one thousand documents.

Ask Mode

When the chatbot appears, verify that the toggle in the lower right of the chat window says Ask, and type in a question about your document or about Laserfiche. If you have not selected any documents, shortcuts, or folders, Smart Chat answers will be drawn only from Laserfiche educational resources such as the documentation or Laserfiche Aspire. If you select one or more documents, Smart Chat will answer based on the documents selected. Questions asked from within the document viewer will always draw answers from the open document and educational resources. Smart Chat will provide references for the sources it drew on, whether those are repository contents or educational resources.

Agent Mode

When the chatbot appears, verify that the toggle in the lower right of the chatbot window says Agent. You can then ask the agent to perform actions such as moving documents, adding templates or tags, or creating shortcuts. If you previously asked questions about documents in the same chat, without clearing the chat history, you can reference those questions and answers in your prompt. See Laserfiche AI Agents for more information.

Getting the Most Out of Smart Chat

Learn how to write clear, detailed prompts that improve the accuracy and usefulness of AI-generated results. Effective prompting helps ensure Smart Fields and Smart Chat return well-formatted, reliable information that can be confidently used in automation and decision-making.

Information Available to Smart Chat

Document Information

Smart Chat takes into account the following information when you ask a question about a document:

  • Document name and folder path
  • Document text
  • Template
  • Tags
  • Entry ID and parent folder entry ID
  • Page count
  • Current revision number and version comments
  • Electronic document MIME type, file extension, and file size.
  • Document creator and creation date
  • User that last modified the document and the last modified date

Workflow Information

Smart Chat takes into account the following information when you ask a question about a workflow's design:

  • Which workflow is currently open, and the following information about it:
    • Name
    • Version, when it was last published, and the user who last published it
    • Account work schedule
    • Whether it has unpublished changes
  • The workflow's saved design, including each activity, its type and settings, the containers and branches it sits in, and the order it runs in
  • Starting events
  • Which steps and containers are enabled and disabled
  • Business processes, workflows, rules, and lookup tables that the design uses
  • The tokens activities produce and use

When you ask a question that involves describing the current workflow, Smart Chat will also ask you whether you want to download the full details of the design. If you agree, it will generate a PDF containing the details for every element of the design.

Note: Smart Chat answers questions about the design visible in the designer, which may differ from the current published version. Smart Chat only has information about the workflow's design; it cannot answer questions about the workflow's runs. See Monitoring Workflows for other ways of finding information on runs. It also cannot report on the contents of separate components called by the workflow, such as the contents of a lookup table.

Security and Auditing Considerations

A user must have the Read entry access right for a document to use Smart Chat for that document. If a document contains redactions, responses from Smart Chat will use the redacted text, to ensure that protected information cannot be accidentally exposed. As long as you can access the Workflow designer and open a workflow, you can ask questions about that workflow; no additional rights are needed. If you are solely asking Smart Chat questions about Laserfiche using Laserfiche educational resources, rather than about specific documents, it can be used by any user.

For information about security and AI agents, see Laserfiche AI Agents.