# Quick Start

# 1. Access to PHOENIQS Chat

Access to PHOENIQS Chat starts with a subscription — either through your company or one you purchase yourself. We offer an Evaluation plan and a Business plan (compare them).

If your company already has a paid PHOENIQS Chat subscription, your administrator has added you as a user and shared your access URL (e.g., chat.your-company.ch). Paid plans include enterprise SSO with the option to login with your custom company identity provider or choose the ones we have out of the box. You never type a password into PHOENIQS Chat; your identity provider stays in charge.

If you're buying a subscription yourself, start by creating an account in the PHOENIQS portal, then subscribe to a plan.

The features available to you depend on the plan your company has subscribed to.

# 2. Get oriented

Before you start, take a quick tour of the PHOENIQS Chat interface — six main areas you'll use most.

PHOENIQS Chat Interface

Use the table below to learn how to navigate the chat interface.

Navigation Component	Purpose
1. Sidebar (left)	Your private conversation history, sorted by most recent, with search and account and personalisation settings.
2. Sidebar (right)	Agent builder, saved prompts, model parameters, knowledge files (RAG), bookmarks, and MCP/tools connection settings.
3. Conversation area	Where messages, citations, code, and file outputs render.
4. Input field	Where you type, dictate, or attach files and images to send to the AI assistant or model.
5. Model and agent selector	Switch models and agents anytime — even mid-conversation.
6. Toolbar	Enable capabilities for the assistant: file search, transcription, web search, code interpreter, artifacts, and MCP connectors.

# 3. Have your first conversation

Click the "New chat" icon and try writing a real prompt based on the task you want to solve. Strong prompts give the AI assistant four things: a role to take, context about the situation, the task to complete, and the format of the answer. For example:

"You're a legal counsel at a Swiss SaaS company. Draft a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) between our company and an enterprise customer, compliant with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and aligned with EU GDPR Article 28. Cover the standard sections — purpose of processing, categories of data, sub-processors, security measures, data subject rights, and breach notification — and reply in clean clause-numbered format ready for legal review."

Each piece of that prompt does work:

Role — "a senior legal counsel" sets the expertise and perspective
Context — "a Swiss SaaS company… compliant with the FADP and aligned with GDPR Article 28" anchors the answer in the right legal framework
Task — "Draft a Data Processing Agreement covering the standard sections" tells the assistant exactly what to produce, with a clear scope
Format — "clean clause-numbered format ready for legal review" defines the shape and the audience for the output

The response streams in as the assistant works. You can edit your message to refine and retry, copy the answer, share the conversation with a colleague, or keep asking follow-ups.

tip

The more specific the role and context, the sharper the answer. Vague prompts produce vague replies.

# 4. Upload a document and ask questions

Click the 📎 "Upload" icon or drag a file straight into the conversation area. PHOENIQS Chat handles text, image, and audio file uploads.

This is the simplest approach; however, for text file uploads, two file search modes are available:

Mode	When to use	How it works
Mini-RAG	Quick Q&A on files uploaded during a single conversation.	Attach up to 10 files directly during the conversation and start asking questions.
Persistent Knowledge Base	Building a reusable knowledge base of uploaded files for repeated reference across chats.	Create an assistant from the right sidebar, enable the File Search option there, and upload up to 10 files the assistant can use.

Try asking the assistant:

"Analyse the attached 'Cloud AI Services Agreement' under FINMA outsourcing rules and identify the three highest-risk clauses our legal team should examine. Reply as a numbered list with one sentence per clause explaining why a lawyer should review it."

# 5. Switch the model

Open the "Model selector" and pick the right model for what you want to achieve.

When to switch:

Quick question or everyday task? → Chat model
Long document or large amounts of input? → Chat model with a longer context window
Complex problem requiring step-by-step thinking? → Reasoning model
You want to analyse images? → Multimodal model

Not sure which to pick? PHOENIQS Chat surfaces a catalogue of recommended models helping you pick the right model for your task.

tip

The model's context window is shown in the referenced documentation. For very long inputs, pick a model with a higher context window.

# What's next:

First-time user? → Build Your First AI Assistant
Ready to automate? → Connect MCP Tools

ai agent platform ai chat quick start