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Chat Tips & Best Practices

docs/doc/get_started/chat_tips.mdx

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How Your Questions Get Processed

When you ask Omi a question, it goes through an intelligent routing system that determines the best way to answer:

mermaid
flowchart LR
    Q[Your Question] --> R{Router}
    R -->|Simple| NC[Fast Response]
    R -->|Context Needed| A[22+ Tools]
    R -->|Persona App| P[Character Response]
<Info> Understanding these paths helps you frame questions that get the richest, most relevant answers. </Info> <Tabs> <Tab title="Simple Chat" icon="comment"> **For:** Greetings, general advice, brainstorming
Questions like "Hi!", "What's a good book to read?", or "Tips for productivity" get fast, direct responses without searching your memories.

**Examples:**
- "Hello!"
- "What's a good productivity tip?"
- "Help me brainstorm ideas for..."
</Tab> <Tab title="Agentic (Context-Rich)" icon="robot"> **For:** Personal data, temporal queries, integration lookups
Questions like "What did I discuss yesterday?", "Show my calendar", or "What are my goals?" trigger the full agentic system with access to 22+ tools.

**Examples:**
- "What did I discuss yesterday?"
- "Show my calendar for tomorrow"
- "What are my goals?"
</Tab> <Tab title="Persona" icon="mask"> **For:** Character-based apps
If you're chatting with a persona app (like "Ask Einstein"), responses come from that character's perspective.

**Examples:**
- Asking Einstein about physics
- Getting advice from a custom coach persona
</Tab> </Tabs>

Prompting Strategies

<AccordionGroup> <Accordion title="Be Specific with Time" icon="clock"> Omi excels at temporal queries. The system converts relative time references to precise date ranges.
<Tip>
Use natural time expressions - the system understands them perfectly.
</Tip>

**Great examples:**
- "What did I discuss yesterday?"
- "Summarize my last 3 days"
- "What happened this morning?"
- "Conversations from last week"
- "What did I talk about on Monday?"

**Less effective:**
- Vague timeframes without anchors ("a while ago")
- Very broad ranges ("everything from this year")
</Accordion> <Accordion title="Use Natural Language for Topics" icon="magnifying-glass"> Omi uses **semantic search** - it finds conversations by meaning, not just keywords. Ask naturally!
**Great examples:**
- "What have I discussed about my health?"
- "Conversations about career growth"
- "Times I talked about feeling stressed"
- "Discussions involving my manager"
- "What have I said about the project launch?"

**Why it works:** The system embeds your question and finds conversations with similar meaning, even if they use different words.
</Accordion> <Accordion title="Ask About Yourself" icon="user"> Omi builds a knowledge base of facts about you across all conversations. Tap into it!
**Great examples:**
- "What do you know about me?"
- "What are my goals?"
- "Who do I talk to most?"
- "What are my preferences?"
- "What hobbies have I mentioned?"

**Why it works:** This triggers the memories system, which stores structured facts extracted from your conversations.
</Accordion> <Accordion title="Leverage Your Integrations" icon="plug"> If you've connected services, ask about them directly.
<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Google Calendar" icon="calendar">
    - "What meetings do I have today?"
    - "When is my next meeting with Sarah?"
    - "Schedule a meeting with John at 3 PM tomorrow"
  </Card>
  <Card title="Gmail" icon="envelope">
    - "Show my recent emails about the project"
    - "Emails from John this week"
  </Card>
  <Card title="Whoop (Health)" icon="heart-pulse">
    - "How was my sleep last night?"
    - "What's my recovery score today?"
    - "Show my workouts this week"
  </Card>
  <Card title="GitHub" icon="github">
    - "My open pull requests"
    - "Issues assigned to me"
  </Card>
</CardGroup>
</Accordion> </AccordionGroup>

Example Questions by Category

CategoryGreat QuestionsWhy They Work
Time-Based"What did I do yesterday?", "Summarize my week"Clear time bounds trigger precise date filtering
Topic Search"What have I said about AI?", "My health discussions"Semantic search finds conceptually related conversations
People"Conversations with John", "What did Sarah mention?"People filter in search + vector similarity
Action Items"What tasks do I have?", "What do I need to do?"Direct access to action item system
Personal Facts"What's my favorite food?", "Where do I work?"Memory retrieval of stored facts
Analysis"How productive was I this month?", "Patterns in my week"Multi-tool orchestration for comprehensive answers
Calendar"My meetings tomorrow", "When am I free this week?"Calendar integration for schedule awareness

Pro Tips

<Tip> These advanced strategies are based on how the system is designed internally. </Tip> <CardGroup cols={2}> <Card title="Combine Time + Topic" icon="filter"> Narrow results by specifying both when and what: - "What did I discuss about the project **last week**?" - "Conversations about health **this month**" - "What did John say **yesterday**?" </Card> <Card title="Ask Follow-ups" icon="reply"> The system remembers your last 10 messages: - First: "What did I discuss yesterday?" - Follow-up: "Tell me more about the second one" - Follow-up: "What action items came from that?" </Card> <Card title="Be Direct" icon="bolt"> Skip pleasantries when you need information: - **Better:** "My tasks for today" - **Slower:** "Hey, could you maybe show me..." </Card> <Card title="Use Relative Dates" icon="calendar-day"> Relative dates work better than absolute: - **Better:** "yesterday", "last 3 days", "this morning" - **Slower:** "January 15th, 2024" </Card> <Card title="Request Summaries" icon="list"> Trigger comprehensive retrieval: - "Summarize my week" - "Overview of yesterday's conversations" - "Key themes from last month" </Card> <Card title="Ask for Specific Counts" icon="hashtag"> When you want thorough results: - "Show me my last 10 conversations" - "What are my top 5 priorities?" </Card> </CardGroup>

What NOT to Ask

<Warning> Some question patterns don't work well due to system design. </Warning>
AvoidWhyBetter Alternative
"Tell me everything"Too broad, hits context limits"Summarize my last week"
"Search all my data"No specific intent to optimize for"What topics do I discuss most?"
Extremely old queriesVectors may not exist for old conversationsFocus on recent conversations
Breaking persona characterConfuses persona appsStay in character with persona apps
Questions about other usersPrivacy boundariesFocus on your own data

Integration-Specific Tips

<Tabs> <Tab title="Google Calendar" icon="calendar"> Best practices for calendar queries:
| Action | Example Query |
|--------|---------------|
| Check schedule | "What meetings do I have today?" or "Am I free at 3 PM?" |
| Find meetings | "When is my next meeting with [name]?" |
| Create events | "Schedule a meeting with John tomorrow at 2 PM about project review" |
| Modify events | "Move my 3 PM meeting to 4 PM" |
</Tab> <Tab title="Gmail" icon="envelope"> Best practices for email queries:
| Action | Example Query |
|--------|---------------|
| Search by sender | "Emails from John this week" |
| Search by topic | "Recent emails about the contract" |
| Combine filters | "Emails from Sarah about the project in the last 3 days" |
</Tab> <Tab title="Whoop" icon="heart-pulse"> Best practices for health queries:
| Data Type | Example Query |
|-----------|---------------|
| Sleep | "How was my sleep last night?" or "Sleep quality this week" |
| Recovery | "What's my recovery score today?" |
| Workouts | "Show my workouts this week" or "How much strain yesterday?" |
| Trends | "How has my sleep been this month?" |
</Tab> <Tab title="GitHub" icon="github"> Best practices for development queries:
| Action | Example Query |
|--------|---------------|
| PRs | "My open pull requests" or "PRs I need to review" |
| Issues | "Issues assigned to me" or "Open issues in [repo]" |
| Create | "Create an issue for the login bug in [repo]" |
</Tab> <Tab title="Notion" icon="book"> Best practices for Notion queries:
| Action | Example Query |
|--------|---------------|
| Search | "Search my notes about [topic]" |
| Find pages | "Find my page about product roadmap" |
</Tab> </Tabs>

Understanding Citations

When Omi answers questions using your conversations, it includes numbered citations like [1] and [2]. These link to the source conversations.

  • Tap citations in the app to view the full conversation
  • Multiple citations mean information came from multiple conversations
  • No citations means the answer came from general knowledge or your stored memories (facts about you)

Quick Reference Card

Best Question Patterns:

Time-based:    "What did I [verb] [time period]?"
Topic-based:   "What have I discussed about [topic]?"
Person-based:  "Conversations with [name]" or "What did [name] say?"
Action items:  "What tasks do I have?" or "My to-dos"
Personal:      "What do you know about my [aspect]?"
Calendar:      "My meetings [time period]"
Summary:       "Summarize my [time period]"

Power Combinations:

Time + Topic:   "What did I discuss about [topic] [time period]?"
Time + Person:  "Conversations with [name] [time period]"
Topic + Person: "What did [name] say about [topic]?"
All three:      "What did [name] and I discuss about [topic] [time period]?"
<CardGroup cols={2}> <Card title="Chat System Architecture" icon="server" href="/doc/developer/backend/chat_system"> Technical deep dive into how the chat system works </Card> <Card title="Building Chat Tools" icon="puzzle-piece" href="/doc/developer/apps/ChatTools"> Create custom tools for your Omi apps </Card> <Card title="Storing Conversations" icon="database" href="/doc/developer/backend/StoringConversations"> How your conversations and memories are stored </Card> <Card title="Real-time Transcription" icon="microphone" href="/doc/developer/backend/transcription"> How live transcription works under the hood </Card> </CardGroup>