How SW Agent answers: the kind of ask first, the answer first, every source

Before SW Agent picks a job, it reads what kind of ask your message is, and each kind has its own way of answering. The thinking steps under a reply show the closest readings with how likely each is, for example a direct answer 92%, an explanation 5%. The percentage is calibrated: of the readings shown at about 90%, about nine in ten are right.

When nothing fits a job, SW Agent answers as the next-best kind of ask instead of listing what it can do.

• A direct answer: a fact, a number, a name or a date, said first with its source.
• An explanation: what it is, how it works and why, in plain steps, with its sources.
• How-to steps: the steps in order, with what you need and what to check.
• A comparison: each side set out, where they differ, and which suits what.
• A calculation: the exact value with the working, or a unit converted.
• A chart: the numbers drawn as a bar, line, pie, area or scatter chart, with them in a table.
• Research with sources: what the sources and studies say, each claim cited.
• Writing: a post, titles, social text, a bio, names, slogans, a logo or a document.
• Code and documentation: how another tool or language does it, from its own documentation, with an example.
• A recommendation: a few good options, why each, and how to choose.
• A plan: the phases, in order, with what each needs and when.
• Troubleshooting: the likely causes, the checks to try in order, and what to do if none works.
• A job with the site's tools: a visualizer, a project, a picture, a song, a workspace or a change, made here.

A reply opens with the sentence that answers your question: a name for who, a date for when, a number for how many, both sides for a comparison, the way to do it for a how-to. Then come one or two sentences that add to it, and the guidance your kind of ask needs: the steps in order, the checks to try, each side set out, the phases of a plan, the options to look at, or what the studies found. Every sentence carries the number of its source, and the sources are listed under the reply.

Ask for it in one sentence and you get one sentence; ask for it in detail and you get more, with the full answer as a document to download.

Before it shows an answer, SW Agent checks it: that the first sentence answers what you asked, that every sentence has a source, that its sources agree with each other, that it is the length you asked for, and that a chart has numbers it can draw with colours you can read. A check that fails sends the answer back for another first sentence or another source. The thinking steps say what was checked.

If its first sources do not answer you well enough, SW Agent tries again on its own: Wikipedia and the open journals, then your question in fewer words, then your question read as another kind of ask. It never stops at not knowing while a way is left, and when every way is tried it says so and lists what it tried.

SW Agent reads our docs and help articles, the method library and Learn's lessons, its world knowledge from Wikidata and Wikipedia, the free library, and its knowledge packs, on our own server first, before asking anything over the internet. Only open-licensed records are read, each credited with its licence and linked to its page.

The knowledge packs cover articles, the documentation of open-source tools, how-to guides and tables of statistics, from publishers such as Wikipedia, Wikipedia (sports), Wikipedia (Vital Articles), MDN Web Docs, GitHub Docs, React documentation, Next.js documentation, Python documentation, Docker documentation, Kubernetes documentation, MediaWiki help and Wikibooks.

• Licences
• Journal articles and sources that agree

Ask for a chart in your own words, with your numbers ("bar chart of apples 5 oranges 3 pears 7"), a table you paste, a CSV file you attach, or a subject to look up ("chart the population of Canada over time"). SW Agent draws a bar, line, area, pie, doughnut or scatter chart, the kind you name or the one your numbers suit, says what it shows first, keeps the numbers in a table under it, and gives them as a CSV.

Each blog post SW Agent writes is its own take: the same sources give other sentences, another order, other headings and another opening. Every take has a number. Press Another take for a different one, or This take again to make the same post again, word for word.

• Blog posts, titles and social text

As an Agent, a job of 3 steps or more stops once, about halfway, says what it has made so far and what comes next, and asks whether to carry on. Say yes and it carries on; say no and it stops there, keeps what it made, and asks what to change. Switch check-ins off in Settings, SW Agent, or say "stop checking in" ("check in with me" turns them back on).

• SW Agent settings
• The kind of agent