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AI assistant
AuroraDocs has AI surfaces for writing, asking about a page, workspace-level analysis, image generation, and external agent access. The exact options you see depend on your workspace mode, encryption state, configured providers, and plan.
AI Surfaces
| Surface | Where | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Selection actions | editor bubble menu | summarize, expand, rephrase, or translate selected text |
| Generate with AI | editor slash menu / insert dialog | write new text at the cursor |
| Ask | right panel | page-scoped chat with the current page, block references, and properties attached |
| Intelligence | sidebar | longer workspace or document questions with source context |
| Assistant panel | sidebar/slide-over when enabled | multi-turn workspace assistance |
| Image generation | cover/image/avatar flows | generate covers, inline images, and workspace avatars |
The page-scoped Ask tab opens with Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+A when a page is active.
BYOK Providers
Open Settings → AI to add provider keys and choose defaults. Aurora supports separate defaults for text, assistant, image generation, and workspace-avatar flows.
Current BYOK provider families include:
- Anthropic/Claude
- OpenAI
- Mistral
- Gemini
- Scaleway
- OpenRouter
- fal.ai, Leonardo, Together, and image-focused providers where configured
Provider/model availability comes from AuroraCloud's current model catalogue when signed in, so new models can appear without a desktop app update. If a saved model disappears from the catalogue, Aurora warns you and suggests the provider default.
On desktop, provider keys stay session-only by default. Turn on secure storage in Settings → AI if you want Aurora to remember them in the OS keychain.
Hosted Aurora AI
Hosted Aurora AI uses Aurora's server-side AI gateway instead of your own provider key. It is available only when all of these are true:
- you are signed in to AuroraCloud
- your plan includes hosted AI and has budget remaining
- hosted AI is enabled on the AuroraCloud API host
- the workspace mode and encryption state allow it
The hosted-AI card in Settings → AI explains why hosted AI is available, unavailable, over budget, outside your plan, blocked by E2EE, or blocked by a non-cloud workspace.
Hosted AI budget is separate from your BYOK usage budget. See Usage & billing.
Semantic Workspace Retrieval
When Use semantic workspace retrieval is enabled, Ask and Intelligence can include nearby matches from the workspace knowledge index as secondary context. The same settings area shows a knowledge-health badge so you can tell whether retrieval is ready, indexing, stale, disabled, or limited.
Retrieved answers can cite source blocks when available, but you should still review the result. AI can miss context.
Workspace Mode Rules
| Workspace mode | BYOK AI | Hosted AI | Server retrieval | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browser storage | available with selected local context | not available | not available | not available |
| Local folders / Offline folders | available with selected local context | not available unless explicitly promoted through AuroraCloud | not available | not available |
| AuroraCloud, not E2EE | available | available when plan/gateway allow it | available when enabled | available with token scopes |
| AuroraCloud, E2EE locked | unavailable for locked content | unavailable | unavailable | locked/unavailable |
| AuroraCloud, E2EE unlocked | available for client-selected plaintext context | only when explicitly allowed | server retrieval remains restricted | cannot decrypt server-side content |
Simple rule: BYOK AI sends only the context you choose to the provider you configured. Hosted AI and server retrieval require AuroraCloud and follow stricter plan, privacy, and encryption gates.
Image Generation
Use image generation from cover, inline image, or workspace-avatar flows. Pick the provider/model in the generation dialog. Generated images are imported into Aurora storage so covers, avatars, and Image archive entries do not depend on temporary provider URLs.
When Aurora offers multiple cover proposals, choose one final image before saving.
Usage Tracking
Open Settings → Account → Usage & Cost to review BYOK and hosted AI usage. Signed-in usage history persists through AuroraCloud. Hosted plan budget remains separate from generic BYOK usage limits.
Privacy Notes
- Hosted AI does not use your prompts, retrieved context, or outputs to train Aurora-owned models.
- BYOK provider calls follow the provider you configured.
- Avoid putting secrets or highly sensitive data into hosted or external-provider prompts unless that matches your own data policy.