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AI instructions, Ask Gearflow and the Assistant

Three AI screens for admins. AI instructions teaches the Gearflow AI your words. Ask Gearflow answers questions about your account, by web, text, email or phone, with pages for its memory and its usage. The Assistant sets up your account by chat.

Admins have three AI screens. AI instructions is on every account. Ask Gearflow and the Assistant show only when they are on for your account. This page describes the screens as of November 2026.

Screen	Where	Who sees it
AI instructions	Settings → AI instructions	Every admin
Ask Gearflow	Ask Gearflow in the main menu	Admins, when Gearflow turns it on for your account
Ask Gearflow memory	Settings → Ask Gearflow memory	Admins, when Ask Gearflow is on
Ask Gearflow usage	Settings → Ask Gearflow usage	Admins, when Ask Gearflow is on
Assistant	Assistant, at the top of the Settings menu	Admins, when the Assistant is on for your account (on for new accounts)

#AI instructions

AI instructions is one text box that tells the Gearflow AI how your operation talks. The AI reads it every time it turns a call, text, email or typed description into a ticket or a request. Only an admin can open the page.

The AI reads the instructions in each of these places:

• A phone call to your Gearflow number.
• A text message.
• An email to your account's intake address.
• A typed description of the need.
• The transcript of a call.
• The first request cards on a ticket.

See Ticket intake for each of these lanes.

#Write the instructions

1. Open Settings → AI instructions.
2. Type in Instructions for the AI. The count under the box shows "N of 4000 characters".
3. Click Save instructions.

The limit is 4,000 characters. A longer text shows an error before you save.

Brief it like a new dispatcher on their first day. A few plain sentences about how your crews talk work better than a long policy. The page gives these examples:

• "When a crew asks for a dump truck, that is a move. Propose a mobilization, not an equipment request."
• "The yard means our Bridgeport shop. 'Bring it back to the yard' is a move to Bridgeport."
• "Our people say 'trackhoe' for an excavator and 'skiddy' for a skid steer."

The instructions explain your words. They do not let the AI assume. The AI still records only what someone said. If you leave the box empty, nothing changes.

#Ask Gearflow

Ask Gearflow is an AI agent that works on your account's data. The empty screen asks "What would you like to get done?" and suggests four kinds of question: ask about your account, analyze a file, research a part, or ask how the platform behaves. For example:

• "Export my equipment requests and tell me how many there are per job."
• "Find the parts diagram for a Cat 320 hydraulic pump."
• "How does the platform decide which vendors get a quote request?"

Ask Gearflow shows only when Gearflow turns it on for your account. Then it shows for a person who meets all of these conditions:

• The person is an admin.
• The person's access is not limited to some customers.
• The person's access is not view-only.

Ask Gearflow checks these conditions again on every message. If a person loses admin access, an open conversation stops working for them.

#Conversations

• New conversation starts a fresh question. The list on the left holds your conversations, newest first. On a phone, a picker above the messages switches between them.
• Each conversation is yours. Other people in the account cannot open it.
• A conversation in the list shows Working while Ask Gearflow answers, and Needs attention when a turn failed.
• While it works, the screen shows "Working…" and what it is doing now.
• Each step it takes shows as one line with a wrench icon. Click the line to see the detail.
• An answer that used web pages lists them under Sources, as links.
• Files that Ask Gearflow makes for you show under Files, with a download link and the size. Download them from there. The workspace where it made them closes 20 minutes after it stops working.
• Last turn under the messages shows the tokens, tool calls, model rounds and seconds the last answer used.
• The line under New conversation shows your own tokens this month.

You can send one message at a time. If you send a new message while Ask Gearflow still works, it says "Ask Gearflow is still working on your last message."

#Attach files

Click the paperclip in the box under the messages.

• Attach at most 5 files to one message.
• Each file can be at most 25 MB.
• Any file type is accepted.

#Reach Ask Gearflow by text, email or phone

An admin can also text, email or call Ask Gearflow. The answer comes back the same way.

• Text: text your Gearflow number from the phone number on your profile. Long answers come back in several texts.
• Email: write from your own email address to ask. followed by your account's namespace, at issues.gearflow.com. The namespace is the part between the dot and the @ in the email addresses that open tickets on your account. Ask Gearflow attaches the files it makes, or links them when they are large.
• Phone: call your Gearflow number from the phone number on your profile. Ask Gearflow answers out loud while you are on the line. If you hang up before it is done, it texts the answer.

Ask Gearflow knows you by your phone number or email address. If the number belongs to people in two accounts, Ask Gearflow does not answer, and the message goes to the usual intake.

A message continues your last conversation on that channel if it was in the last 24 hours. Otherwise it starts a new one. On the web, each message from these channels is labeled, for example "by text", "by email" or "on the phone".

On an account with Ask Gearflow on, an admin's text or call reaches Ask Gearflow, not intake. A text or call from that admin does not open a ticket. Other people's texts and calls still go to intake as usual. See Texting and calling Gearflow.

#Ask Gearflow memory

Ask Gearflow memory shows what the agent keeps between conversations. Ask Gearflow reads it at the start of every conversation, so anything wrong there stays wrong until you delete it.

The page has two lists:

List	Who reads it	What you can do
Your memory	Only your own conversations	Promote to account, Delete
Account memory	Everyone in the account	Delete

• Each memory shows when it was saved and a link to the conversation it came from.
• Account memory also shows who saved it ("Saved by " or "Saved by the agent"), or "Promoted by on ".
• Promote to account moves one of your own memories to Account memory. A confirmation asks first. The memory then leaves your own list.
• Delete removes a memory. A confirmation asks first. Ask Gearflow stops reading it at the next conversation.

There is no edit. To correct a memory, delete it and tell Ask Gearflow the right fact. It saves the new one.

Ask Gearflow saves a memory when it learns something that stays true. Examples: how your PO numbers are formatted, which yard a location code means, which vendor contact answers. It is not a log of your questions.

#Ask Gearflow usage

Ask Gearflow usage shows what the agent has cost your account. It shows this month and last month side by side. Each month shows:

• Tokens, turns, conversations and tool calls.
• Phone calls and minutes on the line, when someone called. Minutes are not in the token total.
• Cached input, tokens in sub-runs, and cold starts.
• An estimated cost in dollars.

The dollar figures are an estimate. The page says so in an orange box. Check them before you quote them.

Who used it has one row per person this month: Person, Turns, Tokens, Cached and Estimated.

Most expensive conversations lists the 10 conversations that used the most tokens this month. Each row shows the turns and, for a conversation from text, email or phone, its channel.

A cold start is a turn that had to build the agent's workspace again. The workspace closes after 20 idle minutes.

#Assistant

The Assistant sets up your account by chat. It opens at Assistant, at the top of the Settings menu. The empty screen asks "What would you like to set up?" and suggests "Add our Dallas yard", "Invite our purchasing lead" or "Check my account setup".

The Assistant is on for every new account. Gearflow can turn it off for one account. It shows only for admins. The setup checklist also links to it from its steps.

#Use the Assistant

1. Type what you want to set up, for example business units, locations, people, jobs or cost codes.
2. Optional: attach a spreadsheet. The Assistant accepts .csv and .xlsx files, at most 5 files of at most 10 MB each.
3. Read the answer. Each step it ran shows as "Ran ".

The Assistant keeps working if you leave the page or reload it. If a run fails, click Retry.

#Confirm changes

The Assistant asks before it changes or deletes something that already exists. It adds new things without a card. For a change, a card shows the change. With one change, the card reads "Confirm this action". With more, it reads "Confirm all N actions — approved together or not at all".

• Click Confirm (or Confirm all) to run the changes.
• Click Cancel to stop them.

The conversation keeps every message and every step, so it is a record of what the Assistant changed.

The Assistant and Ask Gearflow are different tools. The Assistant changes your account's setup. Ask Gearflow answers questions and analyzes your data.