Getting Started


## What is Ask Steve? 
Ask Steve is a browser extension platform that enables you to add AI Agents to your browser and then use them with 1-click. It can be used by:
* Individuals
* Businesses [(learn more)](/docs/business)
* Site Owners [(learn more)](/docs/site-owners)

## Installing Ask Steve
You can install Ask Steve in your Chrome or Edge Browser from the Chrome Webstore [here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/). Create an account with an email & password or sign in with Google, and get started immediately with a bundle of Free Credits.

At any time you can purchase more Credits or connect your own LLM account and continue using Ask Steve for free.

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## Working with Steve
* Once you install Ask Steve and have logged in you'll be dropped onto the [onboarding page](https://quickstart.asksteve.to) that will teach you how to work with Steve. 
* If you want additional information, check out the docs on the left side of this page.

## Disabling Ask Steve
* Go to `chrome://extensions` in your browser, or click on the puzzle piece icon in the top toolbar and then select `Manage Extensions`
* Find the Ask Steve tile and toggle the switch in the lower right corner. This will disable Ask Steve without uninstalling it. 

## Uninstalling / Removing Ask Steve
* Go to `chrome://extensions` in your browser, or click on the puzzle piece icon in the top toolbar and then select `Manage Extensions`
* Find the Ask Steve tile and press the `Remove` button. 



Welcome to Ask Steve, Time-Saving AI Agents for Your Browser

Solutions

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## Ask Steve is the Last Mile UI for Enterprise AI
Companies are racing to deploy AI to boost employee productivity. Software engineers have tools like GitHub Copilot, Windsurf and Cursor, that put an amazing AI intern at their side - an intern that can see what they're working on and reach over and type on their keyboards, giving them contextual AI help right where they're already working.


**Ask Steve brings that same contextual AI help to everyone else**, in the form of a browser extension platform that enables IT & Ops teams, as well as employees, to create, distribute and share powerful 1-click AI Agents that can see what the user is working on and help them "in the flow of work". These Agents can connect to LLMs, to services like Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, Salesforce & HubSpot, and to any API, bringing the power of AI and enterprise software systems to users right where they're working. **"Level up" your entire company with Ask Steve.**

## Ask Steve's AI Agents...

### ... are available to employees everywhere they are already working
<Image    
    className="rounded-2xl border-2 border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-700"    
    src={'/assets/images/where-they-are.gif'}
    width={'715'}
    height={'400'}
    alt={'Summarizing a PDF with a 1-Click AI Tool'}
/>

### ... are able to see their screens so they don't need to copy and paste
<Image
    className="rounded-2xl border-2 border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-700" 
    src={'/assets/images/website-context.gif'}
    width={'715'}
    height={'400'}
    alt={'Extracting data from the current page with a 1-Click AI Tool'}
/>

### ... give them 1-click access to help so they don't have to learn prompting
<Image
    className="rounded-2xl border-2 border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-700" 
    src={'/assets/images/skill-button.gif'}
    width={'715'}
    height={'400'}
    alt={'1-Click AI Tool being used on LinkedIn'}
/>

### ... integrate with internal and external software systems
<Image
    className="rounded-2xl border-2 border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-700" 
    src={'/assets/images/pane-of-glass.gif'}
    width={'715'}
    height={'400'}
    alt={'Connect to Salesforce, Google Workspace, and more'}
/>

### ... are customizable for the company's brand
<Image
    className="rounded-2xl border-2 border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-700" 
    src={'/assets/images/enterprise.png'}
    width={'715'}
    height={'400'}
    alt={'Custom branded for a company'}
/>

### ... are private and secure, so you know where your data is going
<Image
    className="rounded-2xl border-2 border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-700" 
    src={'/assets/images/docs/architecture.png'}
    width={'715'}
    height={'400'}
    alt={'Private and secure for enterprise deployment'}
/>
<br />
<div style={{backgroundColor: 'yellow', color: 'black', padding: '1rem', fontWeight:'bold', borderRadius: '8px', maxWidth:'715px'}}>
    The Ask Steve platform empowers AI, IT, Data & Ops teams to quickly build and deploy solutions that unlock the full potential of generative AI in their companies. 
</div>

## Learn More Today
You can [install the Ask Steve browser extension](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers) in seconds and test it out for free. 

And when you're ready to learn more, [grab some time on our calendar](https://calendly.com/rajat-asksteve/30min) so we can learn more about your use case and see if Ask Steve can help you with **your** enterprise AI deployments!
<br />
<a href="https://calendly.com/rajat-asksteve/30min" target="_blank">
    <button style={{ color: 'white', padding: '1rem', fontWeight:'bold',  width:'315px', border:'1px solid white', borderRadius:'8px'}}>
        Schedule a Meeting
    </button>
</a>




Deploy AI Agents to your Employees in Minutes with Ask Steve

## The Problem
Users are coming to expect AI help on every website and web app that they go to, so it makes sense that you'd want to add AI to your site. But doing so is **a lot of work**. You need to learn to code, figure out what AI system to use, build an integration into your site, maintain it forever, and then **pay for it all**! It's easier just to do nothing. 

What if you could add AI capabilities to your website or app in minutes, without having to do any of those things? 

## The Ask Steve Solution
The Ask Steve browser extension gives users 1-click AI Agents for their browser. While it comes with a few default Agents and has a library of 100+ more, **you can create & brand your own Agents, just for your site, and give your users the ability to install them with 1-click**. So instead of building your own integration, leverage Ask Steve and then you don't have to learn how to code, you don't have to learn about all the different AI systems, you don't have to build an integration into your site, you don't have to maintain anything, and best of all, you don't have to pay anything, and neither do your users!

## Where Does it Work? 
It should work on **any web site or application where you can paste in embed code**, either into a placeholder on the page or into the page header. We have tested it on [Squarespace](/blog/demos/widget-squarespace), [Wix](/blog/demos/widget-wix) and a [custom site](/blog/demos/widget-custom). It does not work on Google Sites. 

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<div style={{ textAlign: 'center', marginTop: '10px', fontStyle: 'italic', fontSize: '14px' }}>
  <p>How to set things up on Squarespace</p>
</div>
<br />

## What's the Catch? 
There is no catch! You get AI Agents on your site for free and your users get to use them. They can either use our free plan or pay for Credits. We built our product and made a free plan because we want people to use it! If you have concerns about how any of the data is used, [this page](/docs/permissions) explains the permissions that we ask for and how we treat user data. 

## Tell Me How!
1. [Install Ask Steve](https://quickstart.asksteve.to) and go through the onboarding to learn how to use it.
1. Copy, remix or create the custom [Agents](/docs/tools) that you want for your site.
1. Be sure to add [Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons) for them and style the buttons with your colors and logos.
1. In the Ask Steve extension Settings, go to the [Widget](/docs/widgets) page to configure an embeddable widget that your users can use to add your Agents. 
1. Click the `Installation Instructions` link for instructions on how to add the Widget to a page on your site.
1. Tell your users to go to the page with the widget to install Ask Steve and your custom Agents. They can do this in just a few clicks and a matter of seconds.
1. Your users now have the AI superpowers **that you created** available on **your site**, **for FREE**!

<br />
[Instructions for Squarespace](/blog/demos/widget-squarespace)<br />
[Instructions for Wix](/blog/demos/widget-wix)<br />
[Instructions for Custom/Other Sites](/blog/demos/widget-custom)<br />
[Installation API](/docs/api) if you want to build your own UX<br />

## Pro Tips
* You can [configure your buttons](/docs/tool-buttons#button-settings) so that they only appear on your site, or on specific pages on your site. 
* You can also create custom branded Agents that your users can take with them to other sites! These Agents can call LLMs or your own APIs, and are completely free to distribute. 
<br />
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    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mKi9ZzBPZd0?si=7k07KPiP047-swAo" 
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    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
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<div style={{ textAlign: 'center', marginTop: '10px', fontStyle: 'italic', fontSize: '14px' }}>
  <p>An example of branded Agents being used on other sites</p>
</div>

Add FREE AI superpowers to your website with NO CODE, and build branded AI Agents that your users can take with them anywhere on the Internet.

Add FREE AI Superpowers to your Website or Web Application with NO CODE

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    <img
      style={{ width: '200px', height: '200px', objectFit: 'cover', borderRadius: '50%'}}
      src="/assets/images/docs/santoro.jpeg"
      alt="Mike Santoro"
    />      
    <div style={{ fontWeight: 600, marginTop: '10px', textAlign: 'center', lineHeight: '1.5rem' }}>
      <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelsantoro-recruiter/" target="_blank" style={{ color: '#2563eb', textDecoration: 'none' }}>Mike Santoro</a><br />AllSearch Recruiting
    </div> 
  </div>
  <div>
    <blockquote style={{ fontStyle: 'italic', marginBottom: '0.75rem', marginLeft: '0px', fontSize: '1rem' }}>
      <strong>Ask Steve is the perfect AI Chrome Extension for Talent Sourcers and Recruiters to integrate into their everyday workflows.</strong><br /><br />In one click you can: Capture data from the web into Google Sheets or Excel, structure it, build advanced search queries, summarize, analyze, write messaging, and conduct deep research using any web page's content. It's also private and completely customizable and comes with a growing library of Free Talent Sourcing Tools.<br /><br /><strong>I highly recommend.</strong>
    </blockquote>
  </div>
</div>

<br />

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## Save at least an hour day with AI help from Ask Steve!
You're building candidate pipelines and Ask Steve can help! Use Ask Steve to save time extracting candidate leads from web pages, researching candidates, qualifying candidates, crafting cold outreach messages, and writing ongoing comms with candidates.

Here are just some of the things Ask Steve agents can help you do: 
* Use AI to intelligently extract candidate content from web pages and resumes into Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Airtable or Notion
* Create complex queries for Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel in natural language
* Summarize and extract key information from web pages with 1-click while doing researching
* Instantly score candidates against your qualification critera
* Write personalized outreach messages in seconds
* Craft professional, tone-appropriate communications to candidates
* Summarize meeting notes with key takeaways and action items
* Quickly translate between languages

<br />
> Ask Steve is the AI Swiss Army Knife for Sourcers!

## Watch our session from Sourcing Summit AI!
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## Watch our founder on the Crafty Sourcer podcast
With [Denise Pereira](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/denisepereira1_i-think-i-found-one-of-my-new-favourite-tools-activity-7330719897661984769-oTDp)
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## How to customize the Qualify a Candidate Agent
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## How to write results into Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel 
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## Try it Today!
You can <span style={{ fontWeight:'bold'}}>[install the Ask Steve browser extension](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers)</span> in seconds and test it out for free. 

Install the Talent Sourcing Agent Pack <span style={{ fontWeight:'bold'}}>[here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/packs.html)</span>.

Got tips or tricks to share? Questions about how to do something? <span style={{ fontWeight:'bold'}}>[Let us know in our user community!](https://groups.google.com/g/ask-steve)</span>
<br />
<br />




Use Ask Steve to Turbocharge your Talent Sourcing!

Use the Ask Steve browser extension to turbocharge your Talent Sourcing!

Learn how Steve can help you get tasks done better & faster.

Working with Steve

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## What is an Agent?
An Agent is just a simple AI that does something for you - summarizing, analyzing, translating, writing, converting, etc. **so that you can spend less time doing grunt work**. Tactically, it's a set of detailed instructions on what you want done, can include variables like data from the current page or from the user, and can write data to external systems. So any time you have a task that you do repetitively, that requires very detailed instructions that you don't want to type in every time, or that needs to interact with external systems or logic, make an Agent! 

Here's a simple example Agent that instructs Steve to suggest visuals for some text that was written. 

> **Name:** Suggest accompanying visuals\
>\
> **Instructions:** I'm writing some text and I'd like you to suggest some visuals to accompany it that will help reinforce and illustrate my key concepts and messages. 
>
>\
> Here is the text that I've written: 
>[[Text to Analyze]]
>
>\
> Can you list some visuals (tables, graphs, infographics, etc.) that would add value and comprehensibility to this article. Describe each one in detail. Thanks!

Note that **[[Text to Analyze]]** is a variable that grabs the text selected on a page, or the whole page if there is no selected text, so you can use the same Agent on any page or selected text without having to edit it!

Make an Agent once and then you can access it from anywhere in Ask Steve including the [Context Menu](/docs/context-menu), the [Chat](/docs/chat), the [Writing Helper](/docs/writing-helper), and [Agent Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons). 

Technically, an Agent is just a set of instructions written in English. When writing an Agent, you should treat the AI like you would a human intern, and provide very specific and detailed instructions. 

Agents can also optionally write their output to an external system like Google Sheets, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or Airtable. **This enables you to quickly build AI-powered data extractors** that can pull the exact data you want off a page and capture it for you. 

Agents can also make calls to any API that you have created, either with code or with a visual workflow builder like [n8n](/blog/demos/n8n), [Make](/blog/demos/make), [Activepieces](/blog/demos/activepieces), [Pipedream](/blog/demos/pipedream) or [Zapier](/blog/demos/zapier). To learn how to create Agents that call APIs, visit [Calling APIs and Webhooks](/docs/webhooks).

Steve has 100+ Agents in the [Agent Library](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/library.html) which you can access from the extension options. You can see all the Agents you have installed by clicking on the purple lightning bolt tab to open the Ask Steve sidepanel and then clicking `⚡Agents`. 

## Adding Agents
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* You can add more Agents from our [Agent Library](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/library.html)
* You can also install customized [Packs of Agents](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/packs.html)



## How do I Create a New Agent?
1. From the ⚡Agents tab in the sidepanel, press the `NEW` button. 
2. Type in a `Name` for your Agent
2. If you want the Agent to appear as a button on every page that you can trigger with 1 click, then check `Add Button`.
3. Add your `Instructions`. 
5. Press the `RUN` button to try out your Agent on the current page or selection. If it doesn't do what you want, then change it and keep iterating until it works the way you want it to.\
This ability to quickly iterate on your Agent until it does what you want is part of what makes Ask Steve so powerful!
6. Hit `SAVE`. Congratulations! Your Agent is now available to use.

## Agent Buttons
* You can easily add a button for your Agent to the browser, so you have 1-click access to it on any site. Learn how on the [Agent Buttons](tool-buttons) page.

## Agent Description
* If you open the `Description` section, you can also add a description of what your Agent does and assign it a Category. These can be useful to remind yourself what an Agent does, and are also helpful when [sharing Agents](/docs/export) with others. 

## Connections and APIs
If you open the `Connections and APIs` section you can pick whether this Agent calls an LLM or an API. Depending on what you pick, you'll have the following options. 
### - LLM Agents
#### Write results to:
By default your Agent will write its results to your screen, either in a floating panel, in the chat, or into a control on the web page that you're on. You can also have the output written to an external service. You can see a list of all the supported services [here](/docs/connections#services)
1. From the `Write results to:` list, select a [Connection](/docs/connections). If you need to create a new connection, click on the gear icon. 
1. Select the document or object (and if applicable subdocument or subobject) that you want to write the output to. 
1. A "Generate Prompt" button will appear if this is a structured document or object. Press this and Ask Steve will automatically generate a prompt that will format the output for your document or object, based on the fields or headers in your document or object. You can then modify this prompt to give the LLM extra hints or instructions.
1. If it's an unstructured document, like a Google Doc, a Google Chat message, a Slack message or a Notion page, whatever data your Agent outputs will be written to the document. 
1. `Save` the Agent and try it out on some data!

##### Advanced Settings
* Structured documents will show an `Advanced Settings` link that you can click on to configure how new data is added to your document. 
* **Append** always add new records to the end of the document
* **Update Empty Fields** looks for existing records that match the fields that you pick, and if it finds any it does not add a new record, but it will update any empty fields if it has data to do so. Anything that isn't matched is added as normal. This is useful to prevent duplicates. *Note that this can take a lot longer since it's doing a lot more work.*



#### Override model with:
By default your Agent will use whatever LLM model is currently selected on the [Models](/docs/models) page. You can assign a specific model to your Agent here. This is useful when you've identified certain models as better or more cost-effective for certain tasks. 

### - API Agents
Read more about how to configure API/Webhook Agents [here](/docs/webhooks)

## Editing an Agent
Select the Agent that you want to update, make your desired changes, then press the `SAVE` button. 

## Deleting an Agent
* Select the Agent you want to delete, press the trashcan icon in the lower left corner and then confirm deletion.
* If you want to delete a bunch of Agents at once, you can do so from the [Manage Agents](/docs/export) page.
* You should feel free to delete any Agents that you don't want or need! You can always add them back later from the [Agent Library](/docs/library).
* Backup any of your custom Agents by [exporting](/docs/export) them.

## Page Variables
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<br />
Agents are most valuable when they're able to take information from the page that you're on and use it. The way we do that is with **Page Variables**. You can add a Page Variable to your Agent by typing in something surrounded by `[[double brackets]]`. When your Agent sees this, it knows that it needs to grab some information from the page - either whatever text is selected or the whole page if nothing is selected. See the simple example below: 
> Pretend that I'm a junior high school student and you are an award winning teacher.
> Explain the following to me in clear and understandable language: [[Text to explain]]

This Agent has one Page Variable, "Text to explain". You can have up to 10 Page Variables in an Agent. Here's a more complicated example where the Agent will need to grab multiple pieces of data from the page:

> Write me a summary of this accident. Here are the details: 
>
>\
> The car make is: [[Car Make]], the model is: [[Car Model]] and the year is: [[Car Year]].
> The accident happened on [[Accident Date]] in the city of [[Accident City]]

This Agent will take 5 pieces of data from the page and use them to write a summary. Take a look at the various Agents that ship with Steve, and try adding your own!

**NOTE:** Any Agent with more than 1 Page Variable can only be used by [Agent Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons). This is because only Buttons can grab more than one piece of content from a page.

## User Variables
<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7J-dxLleecg?si=LGfwFO3FnWQRAmmh" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>
<br />

Sometimes you will want to create an Agent that requests information from the user, and you can do that with **User Variables**. User Variables are surrounded by `{{double curly braces}}` in your Agent instructions. When you trigger the Agent, Steve will ask you to fill in the variable and then will send that data to the Agent. User Variables are free text by default, and you can have as many of them as you want.

A good example here would be a recruiter who is recruiting for multiple positions. They can create one "Write a candidate outreach" Agent and attach a Agent Button for it to a page. Then when they press the button, it can ask them for the specific Job Requisition, which they can paste in. That way they don't have to create a different Agent for each job they're trying to fill. Here's an example of what that might look like: 
> Your name is Riley Hunter and you're a recruiter at Roadrunner Software. You are reaching out to a candidate about a requisition that you're trying to fill. 
>
>\
> This is the job requisition: \{\{Job Requisition\}\}
> and this is the candidate's resume page: [[Resume Page]]
>
>\
> Please write me a personalized outreach letter to the candidate that explains why they'd be a good fit for this job. 

You can see in this example that the candidate's resume is being pulled from the current page, and then the Agent will ask the recruiter for the Job Requisition. 

#### Multiple Choice in User Variables
If you want to give users options to select from instead of a free text field, you can do so as follows: 
* If you want the user to pick a **single option**, put them in a pipe-separated list inside parens after the User Variable, like this: `{{Pick a color}}(Red|Blue|Yellow|Green)`. If there are 5 or less options, your Agent will show them as radio buttons. If there are more than 5, your Agent will show the options in a dropdown list. The value of the User Variable will be whatever option was picked. 
* If you want the user to be able to pick **multiple options**, put them in a double-pipe-separated list, like this: `{{What days are you available?}}(Sunday||Monday||Tuesday||Wednesday||Thursday||Friday||Saturday)`. Your Agent will show the options as checkboxes. The value of the User Variable will be an array of the selected options. 
* If you just want **a single checkbox**, then just put one option inside the parens, like this: `{{Add the URL?}}(Yes)`

## System Variables
There are times when you want to send system data to your tool, including things like the time and date, the URL of the current page, etc. The following System Variables can be sent to your Agent if you include them in your instructions in single brackets, e.g. [_url], [_html], [_timestamp].
1. **_date**: has the human-readable date as returned by `new Date().toLocaleDateString()`
1. **_html**: has a stripped down version of the HTML of the current page. Most non-text nodes are removed. This is helpful if you need to do some analysis of the page structure. 
1. **_imageUrls**: is an array that contains one object for each image on the page. The array looks like `[{"alt": "Alt text of the image", "url": "https://something..."}, ...]`
1. **_language**: has the language of the browser making the API call, as returned by navigator.language
1. **_links**: is an array that contains one object for every link on the page or in the currently selected text. The array looks like `[{"text": "Text of the link", "url": "https://something..."}, ...]`
1. **_os**: has the operating system of the computer making the API call, as returned by [chrome.runtime.getPlatformInfo](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/runtime#method-getPlatformInfo)
1. **_preferences**: has the user's [Preferences](/docs/preferences). 
1. **_prompt**: has the full prompt - so all the text in the Agent's instructions with all the variables replaced, as if you were sending a single prompt to an LLM. All page and user-input variables will be replaced, and all System Variables will be removed. 
1. **_agentName**: has the name of the Agent being called.
1. **_time**: has the human-readable time as returned by `new Date().toLocaleTimeString()`
1. **_timestamp**: has the timestamp of the API call. This is a numeric value (integer) representing the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch, as returned by the Javascript `Date.now()` function. 
1. **_title**: has the title of the current page. 
1. **_url**: has the URL of the current page. 
1. **_userAgent**: has the user agent of the browser making the API call, as returned by navigator.userAgent



> **Example Instructions:** *Repeat this exactly: On [_date] at [_time] from [_url] I captured the following text: [[page text]]*


## Tips for Making Great Agents
* Look at all the Agents that Ask Steve ships with and use those as a starting point. 
* Tell your Agent who they are, what they do, and that they're good at it. Even AI interns like positive reinforcement!
> You are a superstar recruiter named Riley Hunter and you work at Roadrunner Software. 
* Be very precise and descriptive with your instructions
* If you're writing a long or complex Agent, put the text that you want processed or analyzed near the beginning, then give the detailed instructions about what to do with it. 
* If you can provide examples for your Agent to learn from, that is ideal. Give your Agent examples of the INPUT that you're going to give them, and the kind of OUTPUT that each INPUT should generate. 
* Experiment & iterate! Writing good Agents is about trying different things and approaches until your Agent gives you the results that you want!
* If you really want to go deep on how to write good LLM prompts (which is basically what an Agent is), then there are plenty of online resources. [Try this one!](https://learn.codesignal.com/preview/courses/74/understanding-llms-and-basic-prompting-techniques)

## How do I Use an Agent? 
* By pinning the Agent so that it appears on every page as an [Agent Button](/docs/tool-buttons) and then pressing it.
* By selecting some text on a page and then bringing up the [Chrome Context-Menu](/docs/context-menu) (right-click) and selecting `"Ask Steve to..."` and then an Agent. Or if you want your Agent to help with the whole page, just right-click anywhere on the page. 
* From the [Chat](/docs/chat) you can press the lightning bolt icon and then either select an Agent from the dropdown or start typing its name and then selecting it. (A shortcut is to click into the Chat field and press the `SPACE` key and then start typing the name of the Agent)
* By bringing up the [Writing Helper](/docs/writing-helper) in an editable text field and either selecting the Agent from the dropdown or starting to type in its name and then selecting it. 
* By opening the Ask Steve sidepanel, then selecting your Agent on the `⚡Agents` tab and pressing the `RUN` button at the bottom.

## Advanced Agent Properties
The following properties are not accessible via the Ask Steve interface, and can only be added or edited in an Agent's JSON file. You can export the JSON file for an Agent, edit it, and then re-import it from the [Manage Agents](/docs/export) page. 
* **addGrounding**: (true/false) Indicates whether the Agent should use Google Gemini's grounding capability. This is currently only used by the [Free Fact Checker Agent](https://freefactchecker.com)
* **cookieRequired**: (object) Indicates that the specified cookie is required to run this Agent. If the cookie is not present or has expired or has an empty value, the Agent will not run. If you are calling a [Webhook/API](/docs/webhooks) then a variable with the name and value of the cookie will be sent to the Webhook/API. The format of the object is as follows: `{ "url": "The url for the cookie", "name": "The name of the cookie", "errorMessage": "Your error message, can include HTML to link to your site"}`
* **selectionRequired**: (true/false) Indicates whether the Agent only works with a text selection (instead of a whole page)


## Pro-Tips
* You can use emoji in Agent names. Agent Buttons will try to use an emoji if there is one in the name, otherwise it will use the first number or letter in the name.
* When filling out the User Variables dialog, pressing `COMMAND-ENTER` (Mac) or `CONTROL-ENTER` (Windows or ChromeOS) in a free text field will submit it. 


Create 1-Click AI Agents for Your Browser with Ask Steve

<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hlER510DU6c?si=1rgQCY_p-b6u8glF" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>

## What Are Agent Buttons?
* When you want 1-click access to an Agent on every web page (e.g. Summarization), then you can check `Add Button` and it will appear above the purple lightning bolt tab as an Agent Button.
* The topmost Buttons are those that are specific to the current site. These are followed by all the buttons that show on all sites. Within each section they are sorted top-to-bottom in alphabetical name order. You can rearrange the buttons by renaming your Agents.
* If there is an emoji anywhere in the name of an Agent, it will be used on the Button. 
* If there is no emoji, the first letter or number in the Agent name will be shown.

## Adding and Removing Buttons
* Press the purple lightning bolt tab to open the Ask Steve sidepanel
* Go to the `⚡Agents` tab
* Select the Agent you want to edit and check `Add Button` if you want to add a Button, or uncheck it to remove a Button. 
* Press `UPDATE` to save. 
* The changes will take effect immediately.

## Button Settings
Once you have saved your Agent with `Add Button` checked the `Button Settings` tab will appear. On that tab you can change the following: 
* **Button background color**
* **Button text color**
* **What URLs the button should appear on**. This enables you to create buttons that only appear on LinkedIn profiles for instance. And using the options above, you can give these buttons LinkedIn's colors. All buttons that match a specific site are shown first, followed by buttons that don't have a URL specified. 
* **Advanced Options: Inputs**: For any Agents with 1 [[Page Variable]](/docs/tools#page-variables), by default your Agent will use any selected text on the page, or the whole page if nothing is selected.<br /><br />You can override that here by clicking on the page variable and then mousing to the section of the page that contains the data that you want to use.<br /><br />For Agents with more than one page variable, this step is required - you will need to specify where to get the data for each page variable. 
* **Advanced Options: Output**: By default your Agent puts the results on the current page in a floating panel. If you want your button to write the results back into a control on the page, you can specify that here and use your mouse to select the control.
* **Advanced Options: Copy results to clipboard**: If this box is checked, when this Agent is run, in addition to displaying the results on the screen, your Agent will copy them to the clipboard automatically.

## Hiding Agent Buttons
* You can permanently hide Agent Buttons by deselecting `Show Tab` on the [Settings](/docs/settings) page. 
* You can temporarily hide Agent Buttons by either right-clicking on them or clicking on the little close button that appears when you hover over them. They will reappear when you reload the page. 


## Pro-Tips
* Agents that have buttons added and that aren't limited to a specific URL are also moved to the top of the [Context-Menu](/docs/context-menu)


Add 1-Click AI Agent Buttons to your Browser with Ask Steve

## What is the Writing Helper? 
The Writing Helper adds Steve & Agents to most multi-line text fields. You can ask them to write content for you or edit the content that's already in the field. It brings the power of AI right to where you work!

## The Quick Basics
* Watch the video below for a quick introduction. 
* Type whatever you want Steve to do, or pick an Agent from the list. 
* If there's no text it will help you write something. If there is, it will help you rewrite or analyze it. 
* `Enter` gives you the results in a floating panel so you can review and edit if you like. 
* `Command-Enter` (or `Control-Enter` on Windows/ChromeOS) attempts to overwrites the existing text if you're feeling lucky. This doesn't work on all sites. 
* `Command-Z` (or `Control-Z` on Windows/ChromeOS) while the Writing Helper is open tries to UNDO back to the last text. 
* Temporarily get rid of it with a right-click. 
<br />
<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ntm59m2pzgg?si=CPwEJo-JbVkDEH-6" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>

## Bringing Up the Writing Helper
You can bring up the Writing Helper over any editable text field in the following ways: 
* Gmail and Outlook Web: Click on the little Writing Helper icon in the lower right of an email composer.
* **Mac:** Press `Command-Shift-K`
* **Windows & ChromeOS:** Press `Control-Shift-K`

If you don't like the default keyboard shortcut, you can change it! Press the puzzle piece icon in the Chrome toolbar, select `Manage Extensions` from the menu and then `Keyboard shortcuts` on the Extensions page in the left navigation menu. From there you can change the shortcuts for Ask Steve.

## Using the Writing Helper
* You can start typing in the name of an Agent and then pick it from the list. 
* Alternately you can select an Agent from the dropdown menu.
* Or if you don't have an Agent for what you want, just type whatever you want Steve to do!
* Pressing `ENTER` in the Writing Helper tells Steve/Your Agent to do what you asked. By default the response will be put in a floating panel on the page. 
* If you want Steve/Your Agent to attempt to overwrite the existing content with the response, press `Control-ENTER` (ChromeOS, Windows) or `Command-ENTER` (Mac) instead. This doesn't work on all sites.

\
Once your request is completed, the Writing Helper stays open so that you can type in another request, so that you can iterate until the content is to your liking. To make it go away: 
* Click anywhere outside the box.
* Press the `Esc` key
* Press `Backspace` until it goes away

**NOTE:** If there is already text in the text field, Steve/Your Agent will assume that your request is about that text and will work with that text.

### Undo
If you press `Command-Z` (Mac) or `Control-Z` (Windows, ChromeOS) **while in the Writing Helper**, the system will attempt to restore the previous text. The formatting will likely be messed up. See below on how to fix it!

### Fix Formatting
Sometimes Steve/Your Agent will mess up the formatting of text. You can always just ask Steve to `fix the formatting` and he will do so. 

## The Writing Helper icon
* This icon appears in the lower right of the email compose window in Gmail and Microsoft Outlook for the Web.
* If you want to make it disappear temporarily, right-click on it

Get AI help writing and rewriting right where you already are

Get AI Help with Writing and Rewriting Right Where You Are with Ask Steve


<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2aP1j7_ZODU?si=kIvK6LOmsOK8DXIl" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>

## Chatting with Steve
Chat is a great way to find specific information on long web pages or to get quick answers on general topics. 

* Press the lightning bolt tab to open the sidepanel and access Chat. 
* You can ask Steve questions about anything and he'll try to answer 
* Including the current page that you're viewing
* To reset the conversation and Steve's memory, press the trash can icon in the upper right. This can be helpful if Steve seems confused.
* To copy a response, mouse over it and then press the Copy icon. 

## Agents in Chat
### Run an Agent on the current page or selection
* To use an Agent on the current page, press the lightning bolt icon in the chat field. You can then use the dropdown to pick an Agent or start typing in the name of one and then select it. 
* If there is selected text on the current page, your Agent will use that. Otherwise it will use the whole page.
* To get back to normal chat press the `ESCAPE` key or just hit `BACKSPACE` several times.
* **NOTE**: A shortcut to open the Agent selector is to type a `SPACE` in the chat input.

### Run an Agent on a previous Chat response
Sometimes you might want to run an Agent on one of Steve's previous responses. To do so: 
* Mouse over the response and press the lightning bolt icon
* The selected response will be highlighted and now you can pick the Agent you want to run on it. 

## Pro-Tips
* You can Chat with a Google Sheet - either the whole sheet or a selection.
* You can Chat with a Microsoft Excel Sheet - either the whole sheet or a selection.
* You can Chat with a Google Doc - either the whole document or a selection. [video](https://youtu.be/-tpV5Dl-MTU)
* You can Chat with a Google Slide deck - either the whole deck or a selection. [video](https://youtu.be/43118FC6UOs)
* You can Chat with a PDF - either the whole document or a selection. [video](https://youtu.be/oYkGbrtlDUY)
* You can Chat with a selection in Microsoft Word Online, but not a whole document 
* You can Chat with a selection in Microsoft PowerPoint Online, but not a whole document 
* You can Chat with a downloaded file, see [File Chat](/docs/file-chat)





Chat with any web page, PDF, Spreadsheet, etc.

Use AI to Chat with any Web Page, PDF, Spreadsheet, etc.


<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mqGTH_EOK10?si=mqRZFU88kwPucpDD" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>

## Get Help with Selected Text
* Select any text on a page, whether it's in an editable text field or not, and then right-click to open the browser context menu. 
* Select `Ask Steve to...` and then pick an Agent
* The results will be shown in a floating panel on the page.

## Get Help On Any Page
* Go to any page and open the browser context menu by right-clicking somewhere on the page. 
* Select `Ask Steve to...` and then pick an Agent
* Your Agent will read the whole page and then execute your request and put the results in a floating panel on the page.

## Quick Access to Certain Agents
* By default every Agent is put in the Category folder that it was assigned to.
* Agents where you have selected `Add Button` and that are not limited to specific URLs appear at the top level of the menu for fast access.


Run AI Agents on any Web Page, PDF, Spreadsheet, Google Doc or Google Slide Deck with the Context Menu


<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gW_ADqpBBj4?si=5R9OJeDH_VnA3Q6P" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>
<br />

To access the Notebook Settings, click on the `Notebooks` link in the left navigation of the Extension Settings.  Or [click here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/notebooks.html). 

## What are Notebooks?
There are often times when you want to run an Agent on information that's spread across multiple web pages, PDFs and spreadsheets. Now you can collect all that information into a single Notebook that you can use your Agents on.

Your first Notebook ("My First Notebook") is automatically created for you. 

## Creating a Notebook
* Go to the [Notebooks](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/notebooks.html) page in the extension Settings. 
* Press the `ADD NEW NOTEBOOK` button.
* Enter a name for your Notebook.
* Press the `SAVE` button. 

## Adding to a Notebook
* Right-mouse-click on any page or text-selection and then select `Ask Steve to...` then `Add to Notebook` and then select the Notebook you want to add to. 
* The Notebooks in this menu will be placed in alphabetical order. So you can change the order by changing the names. 
* You can add anything that Ask Steve can read, which is most web pages, PDFs, and spreadsheets.

## Going to a Notebook
* From the [Context-Menu](/docs/context-menu) on any page, select `Ask Steve to...` then `Go to Notebook` and then select the Notebook you want to go to. 
* From the [Notebooks](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/notebooks.html) page in the extension Settings, select the Notebook from the list on the left side, then press the purple `GO TO NOTEBOOK` button. 
* You will also get a link to the Notebook any time you add notes to it. 

## Using a Notebook
* The Notebook page is a web page like any other web page that you can use Ask Steve on. 
* So you can [Chat](/docs/chat) with the page or selection, run [Agents](/docs/tools) on the page or selection, use [Agent Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons) or the [Context-Menu](/docs/context-menu), etc. 

## Editing a Notebook
* Go to the Notebook page as described above. 
* Make any edits you want, add or remove information, etc. and your Notebook will be Autosaved after 1 second. 

## Deleting a Notebook
* Go to the [Notebooks](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/notebooks.html) page in the extension Settings. 
* Select the Notebook you want to delete. 
* Press the trashcan icon and confirm deletion. 

## Where are Notebooks Saved?
They are saved on your computer. Nothing goes to the cloud or gets stored on a server.


Quickly collect information from multiple sources so Steve can analyze it for you

Quickly Collect Information from Multiple Sources into a Notebook so you can use AI on it


## Why One-Time Requests?
[Agents](/docs/tools) are great for when you know ahead of time what you're going to need help with, but that's not the case a lot of the time. One-time requests enable you to ask for anything, at any time. And if you find that you're making the same one-time request over and over, you can always make an Agent!

Here are all the ways to make a one-time request with Ask Steve:
* Run the "Do something ✨" Agent from an [Agent Button](/docs/tool-buttons)
* Right-click to open the [Context-Menu](/docs/context-menu) on a page, on some selected text, or in an editable text field, and then select `Ask Steve to...` and then `Do something ✨`
* Press the Ask Steve toolbar icon to open the sidepanel to access [Chat](/docs/chat), and then type in your question.
* Open the [Writing Helper](/docs/writing-helper), type in your request and then press `ENTER`



All the ways that you can make a one-time request to Steve

Make One-Time AI Requests with Ask Steve. Ask for Anything that You Could Ask ChatGPT or Gemini


You can change any of these shortcuts by going to chrome://extensions in your browser and then clicking on "Keyboard shortcuts" in the left navigation menu. 

## Mac
* `Command-Shift-K`: Brings up the [Writing Helper](/docs/writing-helper) when pressed in any text field where you can type.

## Windows, ChromeOS
* `Control-Shift-K`: Brings up the [Writing Helper](/docs/writing-helper) when pressed in any text field where you can type.


Get things done fast with Ask Steve's keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts for Ask Steve, the 1-Click AI Assistant and Tool Belt for your Browser


<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g7f_vh6uN0Q?si=I44j-wf1cSMMX5AG" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>
<br />

## Why Call an API or Webhook? 
* This gives you the ability to call your own APIs that can do anything you want!
* As an example, you could configure an internal API that your Agent calls with an account number that it pulls from a page. Your API can use that account number to pull relevant data about that account from internal systems, directly make an LLM call with the new augmented data, and then pass the result back to your Agent. 
* Or you could send the input to an LLM for processing, and then write it out to a Google Sheet or to Salesforce. 
* Or you could proxy all requests so that you can log them, or filter any sensitive information out. 
* You can do this with your own code running on a server somewhere, or with any visual workflow builder like [n8n](/blog/demos/n8n), [Pipedream](/blog/demos/pipedream), [Activepieces](/blog/demos/activepieces), [Make](/blog/demos/make), [Zapier](/blog/demos/zapier), [Gumloop](https://www.gumloop.com/) etc. that supports Webhooks. 
* This enables you to do a lot more than just call an LLM! 

<div style={{backgroundColor: 'indigo', color:'white', padding: '1rem', marginTop: '20px'}}>
**Check out [this Blog Post](/blog/tutorials/make-lead-to-sheets) for a detailed walkthrough showing how to connect Ask Steve to a Make.com API**
</div>
<br />
<img src="../assets/images/docs/webhook-chart.png" />

## How to Call an API or Webhook
Ask Steve can interface with any API or Webhook on the back-end. 
* To have an Agent call an API/Webhook instead of an LLM, open up the `Advanced Options` on the Agent and select `API / Webhook` from the `Send to` list.
* API/Webhook Agents behave as follows: 
1. All requests are made via POST
2. In the Agent configuration, the default header is to set the Content-Type to "application/json", but you can add anything else to the header that you need, including an API key or Authentication key. 
3. The body of the POST request automatically contains a property for every [Page Variable](/docs/tools#page-variables), [User Variable](/docs/tools#user-variables) and [System Variable](/docs/tools#system-variables). All other text in the "Instructions" area are ignored. If there are static variables in the body that you want to send, you can include them in the Agent configuration.
5. The default behavior is that your API/Webhook should return an object with a "message" property (string) if it was successful, and an "error" property (string) if it was not. This is what will be shown to the user. You can change this if desired in the Agent configuration. 
6. You can include HTML and Markdown in what you return. URLs will be hyperlinked automatically. 


> **Example Instructions:** *This Agent captures [[leads]] and sends them to a Webhook. [_url][_title]*
>
> The POST body will have the specified property "leads" with the selected text or current page. The system variables "_url" and "_title" will also be added. All other text is ignored and not sent to the API/Webhook. 

> **Example Instructions:** *This Agent captures a [[headline]], [[author]] and [[article]] then asks the user for \{\{what do you want to do with this\}\} and then sends them to a Webhook*
>
> The POST body will have the three specified page variables, "headline", "author", "article" and the user-input variable "what do you want to do with this". All other text is ignored and not sent to the API/Webhook. 

## Inserting Variables into the Header or Body
You can insert any variable into the Header or Body. Any variables that don't have a placeholder in the Header or Body will be sent as top level variables in the Body as described above. 
> Example Header:
> \
> `{`
> \
>  `"Content-Type": "application/json"`
> \
>  `"Authorization": "Bearer {{What is your API Key}}`
> \
> `}`
> \
> This will take the User Variable "What is your API Key" and insert it into the Header.
<br />
> Example Body:
> \
> `{`
> \
>  `"model": "mistral-moderation-latest",` 
> \
>  `"input": ["[[Text to Moderate]]"]`
> \
> `}`
> \
> This will take the Page Variable "Text to Moderate" and insert it as a String in an Array as the value of the "input" key. 

Extend the Capabilities of Your Ask Steve Agents with APIs and Webhooks


<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_6E6V41WZhA?si=s1VJ04AMS0C5Yq96" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>

Ask Steve can work on your local (downloaded) files via our [File Chat](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/viewer) page. This page extracts the text out of your files so that Ask Steve can use it. 

## Accessing File Chat
* You can open File Chat from the bottom of the Ask Steve [Context Menu](/docs/context-menu)
* Also from the sidebar in the extension [Settings](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/options.html)
* Or by clicking [here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/viewer/)

## Using File Chat
* Click where it says "Click here to select a file" to pick a file. 
* Alternately you can drag and drop a file onto the purple dropzone. 
* You can also paste an image file into this page and it will be processed.
* You can also paste any text into this page. 

## Supported File Types:
* pdf, docx, pptx, jpg, png, gif
* For PDFs, the page tries to extract any text in the file. If it can't find any, it turns each page into an image and then OCRs it. 

## Processing
* All the processing is done in your browser. Your files never leave your computer. 



Use AI to Chat and Interact with Your Local (Downloaded) Files


Ask Steve formats the results from Agents in the following ways:

## Hyperlinks 
* Any URLs are automatically hyperlinked.

## Markdown
* Markdown is supported. We use the [Showdown](https://showdownjs.com/) library.

## HTML
* HTML is supported. 
* All `<img>` tags are automatically linked to the source image. 

## Parsing Logic
* If the return value starts with ``` then the whole message is parsed as a code block.
* Otherwise all the Markdown is converted to HTML and then the message is rendered.



How to Format the AI Results from Ask Steve with HTML, Hyperlinks and Markdown

Settings


## Accessing the Ask Steve Login page
You can access the Login page in the following ways: 
* Right-click on the Ask Steve icon on the Chrome toolbar and select `Options`
* Click on the Ask Steve toolbar icon or lightning bolt tab to open the sidepanel, then press the gear icon in the upper right
* Following [this link](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/options.html)

## Sign Up / Login
* This is where you can create an account with email/password or login with Google. If you use email/password, you'll be sent an email confirmation.
* Once you're logged in, you'll see your current [Credits](/docs/plans) balance. As a new user you'll get a bundle of FREE Credits to try things out. 
* You can buy more Credits at any time. 
* You can also connect to your own remote, on-premise or local model to continue using Ask Steve for FREE. 
* For remote models, you can currently get FREE API Keys from [Google](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/get-gemini-key.html) and [Mistral](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/get-mistral-key.html)
<br />

<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UeIrI7C_TiE?si=RLuOKU42LB6ZguC_" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>


How to Login to Ask Steve - Time Saving AI Agents for your Browser


To access the Settings page, click on the `Settings` link in the left navigation of the Extension Settings.  Or [click here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/settings.html). 

## Change the Ask Steve Sidepanel Theme
* **Light:** Use the light theme
* **Dark** Use the dark theme
* **System:** Use whatever theme your OS is set to use

Whenever you close and reopen the sidepanel, it will check for the latest theme setting and use it. 

## Show the Ask Steve Tab
<img src='/assets/images/docs/tab.png' alt="Tab"/>
* By default Ask Steve shows a tab on every page that gives you quick access to the Ask Steve sidepanel. It's purple with a lightning bolt. 
* [Agent Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons) appear above the tab.
* Pressing the button opens the Ask Steve sidepanel.
* You can grab the drag handle on the tab up and down the right edge of the page and Steve will remember where you placed it.
* If you'd like to turn off the tab, uncheck the `Show Tab` checkbox and press `SAVE`. This also removes any [Agent Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons).
* If you'd like to temporarily hide the tab because you need to take a screenshot or it's just in your way, right-click on it or click the small "close" button that appears when you hover over it. It will disappear from the current page until the page is reloaded. This also hides any [Agent Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons).

Adjust Ask Steve Settings


<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9ufq_o3o4aM?si=H0fOQOUwSXAOWreS" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>
<br />
To access the Agent Library page, click on the `Agent Library` link in the left navigation of the Extension Settings. Or [click here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/library.html).

## Installing an Agent
* Click the row for any Agent that you're interested in. You can review the notes and the instructions/prompt for for the Agent.
* If you want to install the Agent, click on the `INSTALL` button.
* The Agent will be added to your Agents list. If you want to edit it, go to the [Agents](/docs/tools) tab in the Ask Steve sidepanel. 

\
**NOTE:** Existing Agents are overwritten, so if you have made any customizations, they will be lost.

## Installing Curated Agent Packs
We have created curated Agent Packs for certain roles and tasks. You can install them [here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/packs.html).


Find and install new Agents, then customize them and make them yours!

Find New AI Agents in the Ask Steve Agent Library


<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mBLL0Bm7yqo?si=PAHAwscaJ01tF24V" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>
<br />
To access the Manage Agents page, click on the `Manage Agents` link in the left navigation of the Extension Settings.  Or [click here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/manage.html). 

## Export
* Select the Agents that you want to export, and then press the `EXPORT` button. 
* Selecting/deselecting the checkbox in the header row will select/deselect all the Agents.
* A .json file will be downloaded to your computer. You can use this as a backup, or to share Agents with others. 

## Import
* To import Tools press the `IMPORT` button, read and acknowledge the warning, and then select a .json file to import
* Only Ask Steve .json files will work
* It's good practice to export/backup your current configuration before importing new Agents. 

## Delete
* Select the Agents that you want to delete, and then press the `DELETE` button. 
* Selecting/deselecting the checkbox in the header row will select/deselect all the Agents.
* Confirm deletion and your Agents will be deleted. 
* You should feel free to delete any Agents that you don't want or need! You can always add them back later from the [Agent Library](/docs/library)

## Pro Tip
The Ask Steve .json files are just text files that can be edited, so if you need to make bulk changes you can export, make your changes, and then re-import.  


Import, export and bulk delete your Agents

Manage your Ask Steve AI Agents - Import, Export and Bulk Delete


<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ExK8BhN6TSQ?si=4KrWMFVYengJ7zsf" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>
<br />
To access the Preferences page, click on the `Preferences` link in the left navigation of the Extension Settings.  Or [click here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/preferences.html). 

## What are Preferences?
* You can tell Steve facts or instructions that you want him to always keep in mind. These will get sent with every [Agent](/docs/tools) request and [One-Time Request](/docs/one-time-requests)
* An example of a fact might be *My name is Inigo Montoya and the six-fingered man killed my father*
* An example of an instruction might be *Always respond in Spanish*
* An example of something more involved might be your whole resume.
* Every request you make to Steve includes your preferences. This way you can tell Steve something once and he'll "know" it every time he helps you out.  

> For example: If I save a memory with my name, job title and company, then in any Agent I can reference them. 

## Editing your Preferences
* On the [Preferences Page](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/preferences.html) update your preferences and then save them. 

## Pro-Tips
* Try to keep your preferences on the shorter side, as they take up some of the limited room in your LLM request
* Preferences don't always work like you'd expect - some models are better than others at using them. You will need to experiment!




Have Steve remember facts and instructions about you

Tell Steve, Your AI Assistant, Things About You That He Should Remember

To access the Models page, click on the `Models` link in the left navigation of the Extension Settings. Or [click here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/models.html).

## What Does the Model Do? 
* The model is the LLM service that Steve uses to help you accomplish all your tasks. 
* The Credits model currently uses Google Gemini 2.5 Flash.
* All models have different characteristics and are better or worse at various tasks.
* Generally the better the model, the slower and more expensive it is. 
* **When you use the free Gemini or Mistral models, those companies reserves the right to use your data for training purposes and to make their products better.** 
* **When you are using your initial Free Credits, your data may also be used for training purposes.**
* **Purchased Credits are NOT used for training.**
* If your data is sensitive or you are concerned about privacy, you should switch to paid Credits or connect to a different remote, on-premise or local model. 


## Add a New Model
* To add a new model, press the `ADD NEW MODEL` button. A dialog will open with a number of model templates that you can select from, and a place for you to enter your API Key for that model if you have it already. Press `OK` and the interface will be filled in with the template details. 
* Edit any of the details that you need to
* To test the model, scroll down to the `Test Your Connection` area and press the `TEST` button. A sample query will be sent and the response shown below. 
* Once you are satisfied that everything is working correctly, press the `SAVE NEW MODEL` button. Steve will switch to using this new model, as indicated in the dropdown list at the top of the page. 

All requests are made via POST. The data fields for a model are as follows: 
* **Name:** So that you know what model this is. This is shown to users in error messages. 
* **URL:** The URL endpoint for this model
* **Context Window:** The size of the context window for this model. This can usually be found on their documentation pages. If in doubt, put in 32000
* **Header:** The JSON header that is sent in the POST request. This should be formatted according to the service provider's documentation. This typically includes the API Key or other authentication for the service. 
* **Body:** The JSON body that is sent with the POST request. This should be formatted according to the service provider's documentation. 
* **Response Path:** In bracket notation, the path to the field in the response object that contains the actual response. This will be in the service provider's documentation. Note that one-shot responses and streaming responses usually have different paths, even from the same service provider. 
* **Error Path:** In bracket notation, the path to the field in the response object that contains any error messages. This will be in the service provider's documentation.
* **This is a Streaming API:** If you are calling a streaming API, this needs to be checked, as streaming responses are parsed differently than non-streaming responses. 

## Edit a Model
* Select the model that you want to edit from the `Steve is using:` dropdown. 
* Make your edits
* Press the `UPDATE` button
\
\
**NOTE:** This also changes the current model. Change it back when you're done editing via the `Steve is using:` dropdown. 

## Change the Current Model
* Select the model that you want to change to from the `Steve is using:` dropdown. 
* This is automatically saved, so now Steve will use this model.


## Delete a Model
* Select the model that you want to delete from the `Steve is using:` dropdown. 
* Press the `DELETE` button and confirm deletion
* Select whatever model you want Steve to use now

## Pro-Tips
### Call Any API
* If you want to call an API or Webhook from an Agent, see the details [here](/docs/webhooks)

### Use MCP Servers
* You can add MCP Server details to the `Body` of any LLM that supports MCP.
* See the post [here](/blog/features/mcp-server) for details on how to connect to an MCP Server. 

### Change the Temperature
* The `temperature` setting of a model usually ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 or 2.0, where 0 tells the model to provide more factual answers, and the upper limit tells the model to provide more creative responses. The value can be set to a value somewhere in that range (e.g. 0.3)
* The default model and all our templates use a temperature of 0, as most use cases will benefit from more factual responses. 
* When adding a new model, you can set its temperature to something else, depending on how you're going to use it. 
* You can even add the same model multiple times, each with a different temperature, and then assign Agents that need more creativity to higher temperature models. 

### Connect to a Model Running On Your Own Machine
* See details on how to set this up [here](/docs/local-models)

Connect to other models where you have accounts

How to Connect Ask Steve to Cloud-Based AI Models

<br />
<div style={{backgroundColor: 'yellow', color: 'black', padding: '1rem', fontWeight:'bold', borderRadius: '8px', maxWidth:'715px'}}>
   Connecting to any model served from 127.0.0.1 or localhost is now FREE. 
</div>
<br />
<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oB2Q4ZuFnBg?si=qFKLwJrotgIiRaAP" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>
*Intro & Initial Setup (0:00-1:18), LM Studio (1:19-2:25), Ollama (2:26-3:10), Jan (3:11-3:59)*

## What is a Local Model?
When you run a local model, the LLM runs on your own computer. Then Steve and your Agents can use that model instead of using one in the cloud. The primary benefit of this is that **your requests never leave your machine, so all your data is kept private and secure**. The secondary benefit is that it's FREE. We have tested Ask Steve with the providers below, but you should be able to use any system that can expose a model via a local web server.

### What are the downsides? 
* You have to download big model files (e.g. 3+GB)
* You need to have a capable machine
* The models your local machine can run generally aren't as good as the ones you can access in the cloud
* It can be slower, even though it's running locally

## How Do I Use LM Studio With Ask Steve?
1. Download and install [LM Studio](https://lmstudio.ai/)
1. Open LM Studio. Click the purple `Discover` icon in the left nav to find a model and download it.
1. Once it's downloaded, press the `Load Model` button on the 'Download Complete` dialog. 
1. When it's done loading, go to the [Local Server](https://lmstudio.ai/docs/local-server) page in LM Studio by pressing the green icon in the left nav. Switch the `Status` toggle on to `Running`. This will start up a local server on port 1234 with the selected model.
1. Finally, go to the [Models](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/models.html) page in Ask Steve Settings, press `ADD NEW MODEL` and select `Local: Streaming` from the menu. You won't need an API Key since it's running on your own machine. 
1. Change the port number in the URL field to match what LM Studio is serving on. LM Studio's port is typically 1234, so the beginning of the URL should be `http://localhost:1234...`
1. Change the model name to match what you downloaded, and any other attributes that you want (context window, output tokens, temperature, etc.). Press `TEST` to ensure it works, then `SAVE NEW MODEL` to save it. 
1. Congratulations! Steve is now using a model running completely on your own computer!

## How Do I Use Jan.ai With Ask Steve?
1. Download and install [Jan](https://jan.ai/)
1. Open Jan. Click the `Explore the Hub` button and pick a model to download.
1. Once it's downloaded, press the button near the bottom of the left nav with `< >` inside. Press the `Start Server` button. 
1. Finally, go to the [Models](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/models.html) page in Ask Steve Settings, press `ADD NEW MODEL` and select `Local: Streaming` from the menu. You won't need an API Key since it's running on your own machine. 
1. Change the port number in the URL field to match what Jan is serving on. Jan's port is typically 1337, so the beginning of the URL should be `http://localhost:1337...`
1. Change the model name to match what you downloaded, and any other attributes that you want (context window, output tokens, temperature, etc.). Press `TEST` to ensure it works, then `SAVE NEW MODEL` to save it.  
1. Congratulations! Steve is now using a model running completely on your own computer!

## How Do I Use gpt4all With Ask Steve?
1. Download and install [gpt4all](https://www.nomic.ai/gpt4all)
1. Open gpt4all. Click the `Install a Model` button and pick a model to download.
1. Once it's downloaded, press the `Settings` icon and under `Application Settings` check `Enable Local API Server`
1. Finally, go to the [Models](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/models.html) page in Ask Steve Settings, press `ADD NEW MODEL` and select `Local: Non-Streaming` from the menu. You won't need an API Key since it's running on your own machine. 
1. Change the port number in the URL field to match what gpt4all is serving on. gpt4all's port is typically 4891, so the beginning of the URL should be `http://localhost:4891...`
1. Change the model name to match what you downloaded, and any other attributes that you want (context window, output tokens, temperature, etc.). Press `TEST` to ensure it works, then `SAVE NEW MODEL` to save it. 
1. Congratulations! Steve is now using a model running completely on your own computer!

## How Do I Use Ollama With Ask Steve?
1. Download and install [Ollama](https://ollama.com/)
1. Download a model. For example, this terminal command will pull Meta's Llama 3: `ollama pull llama3`
1. You will need to enable the Ask Steve extension to connect to Ollama. To do this you need to configure the Ollama server with the environment variable OLLAMA_ORIGINS, and it needs to be set to "chrome-extension://gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg”.
1. Instructions for how to do so on various platforms are [here](https://github.com/ollama/ollama/blob/main/docs/faq.md#how-do-i-configure-ollama-server). So on Chrome on a Mac you'd issue this terminal command: `launchctl setenv OLLAMA_ORIGINS "chrome-extension://gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg"` to give Ask Steve access to Ollama. Other alternatives to starting Ollama with the correct configuration are described [here](https://github.com/ollama/ollama/issues/2308).
1. After setting OLLAMA_ORIGINS, you will need to restart the Ollama server. On a Mac you can do this by quitting and restarting Ollama from the Mac Taskbar. 
1. Finally, go to the [Models](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/models.html) page in Ask Steve Settings, press `ADD NEW MODEL` and select `Local: Streaming` from the menu. You won't need an API Key since it's running on your own machine. 
1. Change the port number in the URL field to match what Ollama is serving on. Ollama's port is typically 11434, so the beginning of the URL should be `http://localhost:11434...`
1. Change the model name to match what you downloaded, and any other attributes that you want (context window, output tokens, temperature, etc.). Press `TEST` to ensure it works, then `SAVE NEW MODEL` to save it. 
1. Congratulations! Steve is now using a model running completely on your own computer!

Connect to a model running on your local machine

Connect Ask Steve to a Local AI Model for Ultimate Privacy and Security

Connect Your AI Agents to Other Services


To access the Widget page, click on the `Widget` link in the left navigation of the Extension Settings.  Or [click here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/widget). 

## What is a Widget?
If you're the owner of a web site or web application and want to provide AI Agents to your users, the Ask Steve Widget enables you to quickly and easily embed an install flow in your site or app that enables users to install Ask Steve and your custom [Agents](/docs/tools) and [Agent Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons) with just a few clicks. You can learn more on the [Site Owners](/docs/site-owners) page. 

## Configuring Your Widget
The list on the left has all the Agents that you have created, copied or imported from other sources. Click on any of these Agents and press the `ADD >>` button to add it to your Widget. You will see the code below update. Press `REMOVE` to take an Agent out of your Widget configuration. 

When you're done picking what Agents to add to your Widget, select what kind of site you'll be embedding the Widget in from the `Code for:` dropdown. You will see a link with Installation Instructions appear. 

The page always remembers your last Widget configuration, so you can quickly edit/update it at any time without having to reselect everything. 

## Installing Your Widget
Press the `COPY TO CLIPBOARD` button to copy your Widget code and install it according to the Installation Instructions. 

## Widget Variables
* **learnMoreUrl**: (Defaults to `https://asksteve.to/site-tools`) Put in a different url if you'd like the "Learn more" links in the Widget to point a page on your site. 
* **showInstall**: (Defaults to `true`) This variable determines whether the Widget has a link to install the Ask Steve extension or not. On some sites like Wix, the link to install Ask Steve doesn't work due to browser security measures, so you need to add your own installation link to the page that the widget is on, as detailed in the Installation Instructions. 
* **showIfUpToDate**: (Defaults to `false`) This variable determines whether the Widget will appear if the user's Agents are all up to date. For a site like Wix where you put the Widget in a dedicated placeholder on the page, this is set to `true` so there's not an empty spot on the page. For sites like Squarespace where the widget floats up from the bottom of the page, this is set to `false` so that it only appears if needed. 
* **skills**: This is the configuration data for your Agents. 

## Where Does the Widget Work? 
It should work on any web site or application where you can paste in embed code, either into a placeholder on the page or into the page header. We have tested it on [Squarespace](https://squarespace.com), [Wix](https://wix.com) and a custom site. It does not work on Google Sites. 

## Pro-Tip
If the Widget doesn't work on your site, you can use our [Installation API](/docs/api) to create your own installation flow. 






Add FREE AI Agents to your website with NO CODE

How to Add AI Agents to Your Web Site or Web Application with Ask Steve


## Read Agent responses out loud (Text-to-Speech)
* The floating panel and Steve's chat bubbles both have a speaker button on them in the upper right that you can press to have the Agent results read out loud to you. 
* Pressing the button while reading is in progress will stop it. So will closing the floating panel or the Chat. 
* You can customize the text-to-speech settings on the [Speech Settings](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/speech.html) page.
* Settings that you can modify include: language, voice, speed, pitch, volume and whether Ask Steve should automatically read all agent responses. 
* NOTE: The Google-branded voices in Chrome are really good, as are the Microsoft-branded ones in Edge.
* **This should work in all browsers that Ask Steve supports.**
> This uses the browser's built in text-to-speech capability. Ask Steve doesn't send anything to another server. 
<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g4Wmfz9UYF8?si=EAnsvi7ADsZF5gJ-" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
## Launch Agents with your voice (Push-to-Talk)
* If you are using Chrome (any platform) or Edge (PC only), you can launch Agents with your voice. Edge on Mac isn't currently working due to a [Microsoft issue](https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data/issues/22126).
* When you hover over the purple lightning bolt tab, a microphone button appears. Press and hold it, say either the name of the Agent you want or make a [One-Time Request](/docs/one-time-request) and then release the button.
* If you haven't already, you will be prompted to give Ask Steve microphone access. Press the `Give Permission` button that appears and then press the `Setup Speech Recognition` button on the [Speech Settings](chrome-extension://gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg/speech.html#step-permission) page. Then test if your browser supports recognition in the following section. If it all works, go back and try pressing the microphone button near the purple tab again.
* You will see the speech recognition in process in a purple window near the top of the screen. 
* When you release the button Ask Steve will try to match what you said against one of your Agents, or if there is no good match, it will assume you are making a One-Time Request, and then execute what you asked for. 
* There is also a microphone button in the [Chat](/docs/chat) window that works the same way. 
* An even faster way to launch Agents is to use the keyboard hotkey instead of the microphone button. By default the hotkey is `Alt-Z` (Windows, ChromeOS) and `Option-Z` (Mac) but you can change this on the [Speech Settings](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/speech.html) page. It is also push-to-talk.
* Combined with Text-to-Speech, you can launch Agents with your voice and have the results read back to you!
* On the [Speech Settings](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/speech.html) page you can grant microphone access, test push-to-talk, and change the keyboard shortcut. 
* If you ever want to remove Ask Steve's microphone access, you can do it from: `chrome://settings/content/microphone`
* **BONUS:** If you don't like the Ask Steve tab and buttons, you can permanently hide them on the [Settings](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/settings.html) page and then just use the keyboard shortcut with your voice to launch your Agents.
> This uses the browser's built in speech-recognition capability. Ask Steve takes the speech recognition result and sends it to an LLM with the names of all your Agents so it can figure out which one you're trying to launch.
<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OeKH5FT8Q98?si=lUroCv4th4lnPv8O" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>


## Using Ask Steve in another language
See [Other Languages](/docs/languages) for how to set things up. 


Have results read out loud to you and launch Agents with your voice

Speech - have results read out loud to you and launch Agents with your voice

Other



## Websites are very... variable
Ask Steve will work on most websites, but given how powerful the web platform is and all the different ways that people can build sites and apps, it doesn't work everywhere. 
* It will most likely not work in web applications with complex layouts
* Sites that make excessive use of iframes and Shadow DOMs may cause problems

### Known Sites Steve Has... Issues
* Figma
* Canva
* XHTML sites, like the [SEC's document viewer](https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204424000022/goog-20231231.htm). On sites like this, Steve does what you ask him, but then can't write his response to the page. You can always see his response by opening Chrome DevTools (Chrome > View Menu > Developer Tools) and then going to the Console tab and looking for the text where Steve is waving 👋. 


### Chrome Security Policies
* If you're using Ask Steve at work, your company may have set policies in Chrome that prohibit either the installation of certain extensions or the use of extensions on specific URLs. 
* In this case, you would need to ask a company administrator to add Ask Steve to the allowlist. 
* You can see what policies your browser is enforcing by opening `chrome://policy` and then looking for `Extension Settings`


## Browsers
Since Ask Steve is built for Chrome, it will at least partially work in most other Chromium-based browsers.
* **Chrome:** Works great. Install from the [Chrome Web Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ask-steve-add-ai-superpow/gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg?hl=en&authuser=0)
* **Edge:** Works great. Install from the [Chrome Web Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ask-steve-add-ai-superpow/gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg?hl=en&authuser=0)
* **Brave:** Works great. Install from the [Chrome Web Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ask-steve-add-ai-superpow/gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg?hl=en&authuser=0)
* **Vivaldi:** Mostly works. The FAB to open/close the sidepanel does not. Install from the [Chrome Web Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ask-steve-add-ai-superpow/gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg?hl=en&authuser=0)
* **Arc:** Does not support the sidepanel so you cannot [Chat](chat) with a page or create or edit [Agents](/docs/tools) or [Agent Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons). You can still use Agent Buttons, the [Context Menu](context-menu), the [Writing Helper](writing-helper) and the [Free Fact Checker](/free-fact-checker). You can use a supported browser to create/edit your Agents and Buttons, [export](/docs/export#export) them and then [import](/docs/export#import) them into Arc. Install from the [Chrome Web Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ask-steve-add-ai-superpow/gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg?hl=en&authuser=0)
* **Opera:** Does not support the sidepanel so you cannot [Chat](chat) with a page or create or edit [Agents](/docs/tools) or [Agent Buttons](/docs/tool-buttons). You can still use Agent Buttons, the [Context Menu](context-menu), the [Writing Helper](writing-helper) and the [Free Fact Checker](/free-fact-checker). You can use a supported browser to create/edit your Agents and Buttons, [export](/docs/export#export) them and then [import](/docs/export#import) them into Arc. Install from the [Chrome Web Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ask-steve-add-ai-superpow/gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg?hl=en&authuser=0)
* **Safari:** Not supported
* **Firefox:** Not supported

Ask Steve works on most websites, but not all of them

Where Does Ask Steve Work?


## Your Privacy
We take your privacy very seriously.
* We don't track what websites you visit
* We don't track what you're asking Steve for
* We don't track the Agents that you create
* We don't store your API Keys on our servers
* You can read our full privacy policy [here](/privacy).

## Our Philosophy
* Respect the user's privacy (see above)
* Store as much data on the user's machine as possible
* Connect directly to the LLM provider whenever possible
* Be as transparent as possible about your data, how we use it, and where we send it (see below)
* Ask Steve was created by [Rajat Paharia](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajatrocks/) who formerly worked at Google and IDEO.


## Extension Permissions
* When you install Ask Steve it will ask for permission to *"Read and change all your data on all websites"*. It needs this permission in order to be helpful on any web page. If you are uncomfortable with this then you should press `Cancel` and not install the extension. 
* If you want to limit what sites Ask Steve can work on, you can go into `chrome://extensions`, press the `Details` button on the Ask Steve tile, and then under `Site access` control what sites you want to give Steve access to.
* At any time you can disable Ask Steve via the toggle on the Manage Extensions page and enable it manually on sites you want to use it on.
* In an enterprise deployment, your administrator can configure certain sites to be allowed/disallowed via the `runtime_allowed_hosts` and `runtime_blocked_hosts` keys in [ExtensionSettings](https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/9867568?hl=en). You can use this to prevent Ask Steve from having access to sensitive internal pages. 
* The Ask Steve extension id on Chrome is: **gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg**

## Saved Data
### Your API Keys
* Ask Steve asks you to enter your LLM provider API keys so that it can connect to those providers.
> These keys are stored in the extension's [Local Storage](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/storage) on your computer and are not sent to Ask Steve's servers.
* The API keys are only sent to the service provider in order to authenticate your requests. 
* The API Keys are not encrypted and are sent with every request to the service provider, so someone else with access to your computer could discover them. 

### Other Data
All other configuration data is stored in Local Storage on your computer. It is never stored anywhere else. This includes but isn't limited to: 
* Agents
* Model configuration
* Chat history

## Network Requests
### Your LLM Requests
* When you are using Credits, your LLM requests are sent to to **asksteve.to** which proxies them to Google's Gemini or another provider. The Credits proxy doesn't look at or store your request, it just passes it through. 
* If you configure your own remote, on-premise or local model, we send your request directly to the LLM service provider. 
* If you are working with sensitive information and don't want to send it to a third party LLM, consider connecting Ask Steve to a [Local Model](/docs/local-models), in which case nothing will leave your machine.


### Login and Authentication
* Ask Steve uses Firebase (from Google) for login and authentication. Requests are made to Google's servers (*.googleapis.com) when you login, create a new account, or visit any of the Settings pages.
* We don't ask for or store any PII beyond what is provided at login. 
* This can be disabled for enterprise deployments.


### Configuration Files
Ask Steve loads various configuration files from **quickstart.asksteve.to**, including but not limited to:
* **models_new.json** - contains all the model templates
* **skills.json** - contains the out-of-the-box Agents
* **site-configs.json** - contains data for whether to show various UI elements on certain sites
* This can be disabled for enterprise deployments. 


## Other
The LLM service may use your data for training or to make their products better.
* If you are using Free Credits or are using the Google Gemini or Mistral La Plateforme free tier, they reserve the right to use your data. 
* If you are using Paid Credits, then **YOUR DATA WILL NOT BE USED**. 
* If this concerns you, you should connect to a paid, internal or local model that explicitly states that they will not use your data. You can do this for free. 






What permissions does Ask Steve ask for and how does it use your data?

How AI Extension Ask Steve Uses Your Data and the Permissions it Asks For


## How to setup Ask Steve for use in your language
1. Go to [Preferences](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/preferences.html) and add something like the following for your language: `Always give me results in Spanish` and save it. This will then get sent with every request that you make. 
1. Now the results from your [Agents](/docs/tools) and [One-Time Requests](/docs/one-time-requests) should all be in that language. (You can also go edit individual Agents and add a similar directive to the Instructions there if you want it customized per Agent) 
1. If you are using [Speech](/docs/speech.html), go to the [Speech Settings](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/speech.html) page and select your language from the first section. Then in the second section, open the `Voice` dropdown list and select an appropriate voice. Any voices that are intended for your selected language should appear at the top of the list. 
1. **That's it! You should now be able to use Ask Steve in your language of choice.**
<br />
<div style={{ position: 'relative', paddingBottom: '56.25%', height: 0, overflow: 'hidden', maxWidth: '100%', height: 'auto' }}>
  <iframe 
    src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lvHOKTIj2Dc?si=L4gvED3RdgAuRF7L" 
    title="YouTube video player" 
    frameBorder="0" 
    allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" 
    referrerPolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" 
    allowFullScreen 
    style={{ position: 'absolute', top: 0, left: 0, width: '100%', height: '100%' }}>
  </iframe>
</div>


Want to use Ask Steve in a non-English language?

Languages - How to use Ask Steve in non-English languages


## BYO Account (FREE!)
* Unlimited access to all functionality
* Bring your own API Key for a remote model, or connect to any on-premise model, local model, or API. 
* [Want a free Gemini API Key?](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/get-gemini-key.html) 
* [Want a free Mistral API Key?](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/get-mistral-key.html)
* Community support

## Paid Credits
* Don't want to bother with figuring out how to get an API Key or set up a model? [Buy Credits from us](/pricing).
* No subscription required, buy Credits when you need them. 
* Credits are used when you use Ask Steve or any of your Agents.
* Every new user gets a bundle of free Credits to try things out. 
* With paid Credits, your data is not used for training any models.
* No rate limiting. 
* Credits last 1 year. 
* Email support


## Enterprise
* Integration & customization services
* On-premise deployment
* Email support
* [Contact for more information](/contact)


Review the Pricing Plans for Ask Steve, Time-Saving AI Agents For Your Browser


## What is the Ask Steve Installation API?
We have exposed some APIs in the Ask Steve browser extension so that you can programatically add Agents to the user's Ask Steve installation. You can call these APIs via the `chrome.runtime.sendMessage` function. We use these same APIs in our [Widget](/docs/widgets).

## Getting the Extension Id
The extensionId is `gldebcpkoojijledacjeboaehblhfbjg`


## APIs
### isExtensionInstalled
No arguments, returns `{"status": true}` if the extension is installed. 
```
try {
    const response = await chrome.runtime.sendMessage(extensionId, {type: "isExtensionInstalled"});
    if (!chrome.runtime.lastError && response.status) {
        extensionInstalled = true;
        console.log('Extension installed');
}
} catch (error) {
    console.log('Extension not installed or unreachable', error);
}
```
### areAgentsUpToDate 
Called with an object that has a `skills` property on it with all the [Agents](/docs/agents) that you want to compare. If any of the Agents don't exist or have been modified, this will return `{"status": false}`, otherwise it will return `{"status": true}`

```
try {
    // are the Agents already installed and up to date? 
    const response = await chrome.runtime.sendMessage(extensionId, {type: "areAgentsUpToDate", data: asksteve_data});
    if (!chrome.runtime.lastError && response.status) {
        console.log('Agents are up to date');
    }
    else {
        console.log('Agents are not up to date');
    }
}
catch (error) {
    console.log('Extension unreachable', error);
}
```

### addAgents
Called with an object that has a `skills` property on it with all the Agents that you want to add. This will return `{"status": true}` if successful, `{"status": false, "error": MESSAGE}` if not. 
```
await chrome.runtime.sendMessage(extensionId, { type: "addAgents", data: asksteve_data });
```

Some notes about adding Agents: 
* The user will be shown a confirmation dialog where they can choose whether to install the Agents or not. 
* All Skill Ids and Connection Ids will be prepended with the hostname of your site if it's not already there. This way your Agents won't overwrite anyone elses, and they can't overwrite yours. 

### removeAgents
Called with an object that has a `skills` property on it with all the Agents that you want to remove. This will return `{"status": true}` if successful, `{"status": false, "error": MESSAGE}` if not. 
```
await chrome.runtime.sendMessage(extensionId, { type: "removeAgents", data: asksteve_data });
```

Some notes about removing Agents: 
* The user will be shown a confirmation dialog where they can choose whether to remove the Agents or not. 
* All Skill Ids and Connection Ids will be prepended with the hostname of your site if it's not already there. This way you can't remove someone else's Agents, and they can't remove yours.


## Questions? Need Help?
Ask them in the [User Community](https://groups.google.com/g/ask-steve).

The Installation API for the Ask Steve AI Browser Extension


<br />
Open the **[Free Credits page](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/free-credits.html)** in the Extension settings to learn about all the ways to earn Free Credits.
<br />
<br />


Write a post, make a video or write a review and let us know!

Share Ask Steve and Earn Free Credits


We would appreciate any support that you can give us so that we can continue to make Ask Steve even better! Here are some ways that you can help us: 
* If you don't want to connect your own account, [Buy Credits](/pricing)
* Making a one-time donation at [Buy Me a Coffee](https://buymeacoffee.com/asksteveto)
* Writing a good review on the Chrome or Edge Web Store [here](https://quickstart.asksteve.to/browsers/)
* Sending us a testimonial about how you're using Ask Steve [here](https://forms.gle/KAEAeCLsGeLAGqKk8)
* Spreading the word and telling your friends and coworkers about Ask Steve. You can even earn [Free Credits!](/docs/free-credits)
* Sharing tips, tricks and Tools in our [User Community](https://groups.google.com/g/ask-steve)

<br />
<a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/asksteveto" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.buymeacoffee.com/buttons/v2/default-yellow.png" alt="Buy Me A Coffee" style={{height: '60px', width: '217px'}}/></a>
<br />



Ways to Support Ask Steve - Time-Saving AI Agents For Your Browser

Release Notes for Ask Steve, Time-Saving AI Agents for Your Browser

"use strict";
const {Fragment: _Fragment, jsx: _jsx, jsxs: _jsxs} = arguments[0];
function _createMdxContent(props) {
  const _components = {
    a: "a",
    code: "code",
    h2: "h2",
    li: "li",
    p: "p",
    span: "span",
    ul: "ul",
    ...props.components
  };
  return _jsxs(_Fragment, {
    children: [_jsx(_components.p, {
      children: "You can change any of these shortcuts by going to chrome://extensions in your browser and then clicking on \"Keyboard shortcuts\" in the left navigation menu."
    }), "\n", _jsxs(_components.h2, {
      id: "mac",
      children: [_jsx(_components.a, {
        "aria-hidden": "true",
        tabIndex: "-1",
        href: "#mac",
        children: _jsx(_components.span, {
          className: "icon icon-link"
        })
      }), "Mac"]
    }), "\n", _jsxs(_components.ul, {
      children: ["\n", _jsxs(_components.li, {
        children: [_jsx(_components.code, {
          children: "Command-Shift-K"
        }), ": Brings up the ", _jsx(_components.a, {
          href: "/docs/writing-helper",
          children: "Writing Helper"
        }), " when pressed in any text field where you can type."]
      }), "\n"]
    }), "\n", _jsxs(_components.h2, {
      id: "windows-chromeos",
      children: [_jsx(_components.a, {
        "aria-hidden": "true",
        tabIndex: "-1",
        href: "#windows-chromeos",
        children: _jsx(_components.span, {
          className: "icon icon-link"
        })
      }), "Windows, ChromeOS"]
    }), "\n", _jsxs(_components.ul, {
      children: ["\n", _jsxs(_components.li, {
        children: [_jsx(_components.code, {
          children: "Control-Shift-K"
        }), ": Brings up the ", _jsx(_components.a, {
          href: "/docs/writing-helper",
          children: "Writing Helper"
        }), " when pressed in any text field where you can type."]
      }), "\n"]
    })]
  });
}
function MDXContent(props = {}) {
  const {wrapper: MDXLayout} = props.components || ({});
  return MDXLayout ? _jsx(MDXLayout, {
    ...props,
    children: _jsx(_createMdxContent, {
      ...props
    })
  }) : _createMdxContent(props);
}
return {
  default: MDXContent
};


Getting Started

Solutions

Working with Steve

Settings

Other

Keyboard Shortcuts

Get things done fast with Ask Steve's keyboard shortcuts

Mac

Windows, ChromeOS

Table of Contents

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