Zenmako
Chatting with Agents
Agents are your AI-powered assistants in Zenmako. They have access to your connected tools and knowledge base, allowing them to answer questions about your data and take actions on your behalf.
Starting a Conversation
Opening the Chat Interface
Starting a New Thread
Each conversation is called a "thread." To start a fresh conversation:
Your message is sent to the agent, and the response streams back in real time.
How Agents Work
Agents combine three capabilities to provide intelligent assistance:
Access to Your Connections
When you connect tools like Asana, Trello, Notion, or HubSpot, agents can interact with them. This means agents can:
The more connections you add, the more comprehensive the agent's understanding becomes.
Knowledge Base Understanding
Agents use the knowledge base to understand context about your work. The knowledge base contains indexed information from all your connections, including:
This allows agents to answer questions instantly without needing to query external APIs for every request.
Tool Execution
Agents can call tools to take actions in your connected services. When an agent needs to perform an action, it:
Asking Questions
Agents excel at answering questions about your connected data. Here are examples of what you can ask:
Task and Project Questions
What tasks are due this week?
Show me all high-priority tasks in Project Alpha
What is the status of the marketing campaign?
Who is assigned to the onboarding documentation?
Which projects have overdue tasks?
People and Team Questions
What is John working on right now?
Who is responsible for the Q1 launch?
Show me tasks assigned to the design team
What deadlines does Sarah have this month?
Summary and Overview Questions
Give me a summary of my week
What should I focus on today?
What happened in Project Beta since Monday?
Summarize the recent activity in our CRM
How Knowledge Search Works
When you ask a question, the agent:
Cross-Tool Queries
One of the most powerful features is asking questions that span multiple connections:
What tasks are overdue and who are the contacts associated with those projects?
Show me all items related to Acme Corp across Asana and HubSpot
Compare my task load in Trello with the deals I'm managing in HubSpot
The agent pulls data from all relevant connections and presents a unified answer.
Requesting Actions
Beyond answering questions, agents can take actions in your connected tools.
Examples of Actions
Creating items:Create a task in Project Alpha called "Review design mockups" due Friday
Add a new contact named Jane Smith from Acme Corp to HubSpot
Create a Trello card for the bug report in the Engineering board
Mark the "Update documentation" task as complete
Change the priority of "Launch prep" to high
Move the "Code review" task to In Progress
Assign all unassigned tasks in Project Beta to me
Add the "urgent" label to all tasks due this week
Update the deal stage for Acme Corp to "Proposal Sent"
How Permissions Affect Actions
Your connection permissions determine what agents can do:
| Permission Level | Behavior |
| Allowed | Agent executes the action immediately |
| Requires Approval | Agent asks for your confirmation before executing |
| Denied | Agent cannot perform the action |
You configure these permissions per action in each connection's settings.
When Approval is Required
If an action requires approval:
This gives you control over actions that modify your data while still allowing automation for low-risk operations.
Conversation History
All your conversations are saved and accessible from the sidebar.
Viewing Past Conversations
Finding Previous Threads
To locate a specific conversation:
You can continue any previous conversation by selecting it and typing a new message.
Tips for Better Results
Be Specific
Vague questions get vague answers. Compare:
| Less Effective | More Effective |
| "What tasks do I have?" | "What tasks are assigned to me that are due this week?" |
| "Tell me about the project" | "What is the current status of Project Alpha?" |
| "Create a task" | "Create a task in the Marketing board called 'Draft blog post' due next Friday" |
Reference Items by Name
Agents understand your data better when you use specific names:
Good: "What is the status of Project Alpha?"
Better: "What tasks are blocking the Project Alpha launch milestone?"
Good: "Show me John's tasks"
Better: "Show me John Smith's overdue tasks in the Engineering project"
Provide Context When Needed
If your question relates to something specific, include that context:
I just finished a call with Acme Corp. Create a follow-up task to send them
the pricing document by end of day tomorrow.
Ask Follow-Up Questions
Conversations are threaded, so the agent remembers context. Build on previous answers:
You: What tasks are due this week?
Agent: [lists 5 tasks]
You: Which of those are high priority?
Agent: [filters to 2 high-priority tasks]
You: Assign both of those to Sarah
Break Down Complex Requests
For complex tasks, break them into steps:
First, show me all overdue tasks in Project Alpha.
[review the list]
Now mark the first three as complete.
[confirm]
Finally, create a summary task called "Follow up on completed items" for Monday.