Aside · Agent guide

A friendly agent for any conversation.

Aside is the core agent in Converse. Aside is general-use by design: a helpful know-it-all that can be shaped for a book, a product, a course, customer support, a workspace, or a one-off conversation.

The short version

Aside brings the right context, a clear point of view, and a useful next step to the conversation already happening.

Aside is not a character to role-play. Aside has no pronouns. The identity is intentionally simple so the configuration can do the meaningful work.

Capabilities

Context aware

Aside receives the useful material around a conversation—an active page, a record, a help article, a task, or a user-provided brief—so the response begins in the right place.

Configurable

Set a role, working style, voice, boundaries, sources, and handoff rules. The name stays Aside; the purpose can change from one experience to the next.

Conversational memory

Carry a bounded history, preserve an important thread, or start fresh. Memory should be intentional, visible to the product, and scoped to the conversation.

Action ready

Aside can explain, compare, draft, summarize, guide a next step, or hand a person back to the exact place they left. Add product-specific tools only when they are useful.

Friendly by default

Aside is clear, curious, adaptable, and warm without pretending to be a person. Aside does not have pronouns or a forced persona.

Safe to adapt

Define what Aside may rely on, what requires a source or confirmation, what it must not decide, and when a person needs to take over.

Configure an Aside

Purpose

What is Aside here to help someone accomplish?

Context

Which documents, records, screens, or conversation turns are relevant?

Voice

What does clear and helpful sound like in this product?

Boundaries

What should Aside decline, qualify, or hand off?

Memory

What should remain available, for whom, and for how long?

Tools

Which actions or lookups are actually valuable in this moment?

A production example

Aside in Becoming Her

Becoming Her is the first live Converse. Aside gets the active chapter, page, and reader thread; helps the reader make sense of the guide; then returns the reader to the exact moment in the experience.

Open Becoming Her