AI in your academy

Three AI assistants appear in Alethris. Two belong to your academy and speak under its name: the staff copilot, for your team, and the Study Guide, for your learners. The third, Alethris Help, belongs to Alethris and answers questions about using the platform. Your academy controls the first two completely and the third not at all.

The staff copilot

The staff copilot works across the academy workspace. A round button with a sparkle opens it from the bottom-right corner of every page except Alethris Help and the homepage builder, which has its own Assistant, and it introduces itself by the name in its profile. Switched on before anyone has edited that profile, it takes the academy's name followed by Copilot, such as Meridian Institute of Technology Copilot, and you can change the name at any time. Staff use it to ask about the academy's figures, learners, submissions, cohorts and fees, and the same assistant drafts programmes, lessons, outcomes, application forms, homepage text, assignments and announcements, drafts a marking checklist for an assessor, and summarises a learner's risk case.

Finance administrators cannot use the copilot. Every other staff role can, and it looks up only the records that person's own roles can read.

The Study Guide

The Study Guide is the learner assistant. Learners reach it from Study Guide in their menu, and it answers in your academy's name: switched on before anyone has edited its profile, it is called the academy's name followed by Study Guide. It answers from the learner's programmes at your academy and nothing outside them, explains a lesson another way, summarises for revision, suggests a study plan for the week, and clarifies what an assignment asks for. How far it may help with assessed work is set by the academic integrity mode of your academy and of each programme.

Learners do not see the Study Guide at all until it is switched on, and a programme can switch it off for its own learners. Using it is covered in the guide The Study Guide.

Alethris Help

Alethris Help answers questions about how Alethris works, from these Guides, and cites the lessons it used. It appears as Alethris Help in the academy workspace menu and in the Alethris Hub, and as Help in the learner workspace. It needs no switch, spends none of your academy's credits, and cannot see your academy's records. Each person has a daily limit of questions, and its conversations clear three days after the last message.

What every academy assistant has in common

• Off until you switch it on. A new academy starts with both assistants off. An owner or administrator switches each one on in the Assistants card, under Academy settings, then AI assistant; switching one on publishes how it behaves if that was never published.
• Paid in AI credits. Every request to the copilot or the Study Guide spends AI credits from the academy's balance, which the owner or a finance administrator buys under Billing. Every new academy starts with 25,000 free credits, which expire 30 days after it was created.
• Nothing changes without a person. The AI assistant page puts it in one line: "Requests read your records · nothing changes without a person applying it". A draft, a summary or a suggested check-in waits for a member of staff to apply it.
• Never a decision maker. Platform safeguards stop the assistants making assessment, credential or payment decisions, whatever their instructions say.
• Sent to an AI provider. Each request, with the assistant's profile, goes to the AI provider chosen for its task, Anthropic or OpenAI. Choosing the provider is part of setting up each task.

Where the settings are

Everything about your academy's assistants is under Academy settings, then AI assistant: each assistant's switch, the credit balance, the default academic integrity mode, how long conversations are kept, daily limits, the tasks, the two profiles, and usage. Only owners and administrators reach these settings; finance administrators can also read the usage, from Billing.

Your academy's two assistants, the staff copilot and the Study Guide for learners, each have their own switch on the AI assistant page. Switching one on takes one step: if its profile, which says how it behaves, has never been published, switching on publishes it as it stands, so the assistant starts working at once. A new academy starts with both switched off, so nobody sees an assistant and nothing is sent to an AI provider until you act. Every new academy also starts with 25,000 free AI credits, which expire 30 days after it was created.

Owners and administrators switch the assistants, confirming with their password. Anyone else who reaches the page reads "Assistant settings are visible to the academy owner and admins."

Switch an assistant on

1. Open Academy settings, then AI assistant.
2. In the Assistants card, select the switch on the Staff copilot row or the Learner assistant row.
3. In the dialog, such as "Switch on the staff copilot", enter Your password and choose Switch on.

The dialog says the assistant starts working straight away and that each request spends credits from the academy's balance; for a profile never published, it adds that switching on publishes it as it stands. Switching one assistant on leaves the other as it was, so switching on the staff copilot never brings the Study Guide to learners.

Until its profile is edited, each assistant is named after the academy: the academy's name followed by Copilot for staff, or by Study Guide for learners, or Academy Copilot and Learning Assistant when that would run past 80 characters. Change the name, the voice and the instructions at any time with Edit profile, and try a draft in a preview before you switch anything on.

Switch an assistant off

1. In the Assistants card, select the switch of the assistant that is on.
2. In the dialog, such as "Switch off the learner assistant", enter Your password if asked and choose Switch off.

The people it served stop seeing it. Their conversations are kept for the academy's retention period, and everything still works by hand. To keep the copilot for your staff but stop learners using the Study Guide, switch off Learner assistant only. Switching an assistant on again brings back the profile that was published, without publishing anything new.

What each row says

Each row names the assistant, such as Staff copilot · Meridian Assistant, says what it does, and says where its profile stands:

• Version 2 published · no draft changes — on, and following its published profile.
• Version 2 published · draft changes waiting — on; edits are saved in the draft, and live only once you publish them from Edit profile.
• Off · Version 2 published · no draft changes — switched off; switching it on brings back version 2.
• Off · switching it on publishes this profile as it stands — off, and never published.
• Never published — switched on before its profile was ever published, so it cannot run yet. Publish it from Edit profile.

Fix profile in place of Edit profile means the draft has something to fix, such as instructions that appear to contain a secret. A profile that has never been published cannot be switched on until it is fixed.

The credit balance

Under the two rows, a line gives the academy's balance, such as "25,000 AI credits available", and Buy credits opens Billing, where the owner or a finance administrator buys more. When some credits are due to expire, a line in the warning colour says how many and when, such as "25,000 credits expire in 30 days (5 November)."

An assistant also needs its tasks switched on and credits to spend. Every task starts switched on; Open tasks shows which are on. The Rules for both assistants card holds the default academic integrity, how long conversations are kept and the daily limits, and saving it never switches an assistant on or off. Learners on a programme whose Study Guide settings are Off in this programme are not offered the Study Guide, whatever the switch says.

What the academy sees

While either assistant is off, owners and administrators see an AI assistants section on the Overview naming each assistant that is not on and why, with Open AI settings beside it. While the academy's set-up checklist is unfinished, its optional step Staff assistant switched on leads to this page too.

Once the copilot is on, the round button that opens it appears on every page of the academy workspace except Alethris Help. Once the Study Guide is on, Study Guide appears in learners' menus.

When an assistant will not switch on or off

• "The assistant's profile needs fixing before it can be switched on." The profile has never been published, and its draft breaks a rule. Choose Fix profile, correct what the warning names, then switch the assistant on again.
• "That password was not accepted." Enter the password you sign in to Alethris with.
• "These settings changed elsewhere. Reload and try again." Someone else changed the settings first. Reload the page and switch again.
• "This academy is read-only, so its assistants cannot be switched on or off." The academy is closed or read-only, so its settings cannot change.
• "Assistant settings are visible to the academy owner and admins." Your role cannot change these settings. Ask an owner or administrator.

Your academy pays for its assistants in AI credits. Every question to the staff copilot, every draft, summary and check-in, and every learner question to the Study Guide spends credits from the academy's balance. Alethris Help, which answers questions about Alethris itself, spends nothing. Daily limits let owners and administrators cap how much is spent, and by whom.

Credits are bought under Billing, in Academy settings, by the owner or a finance administrator, and every new academy starts with 25,000 free credits that expire 30 days after it was created. The AI assistant page shows the balance, such as "25,000 AI credits available", when the next credits expire, and Buy credits. Buying credits is covered in the Plans, billing and usage guide.

What a request costs

A request is charged in credits for the text it reads and writes, at the rate of the model its task uses. Longer questions, longer answers and a higher quality tier cost more. Before you start one, the assistant tells you what to expect:

• "Usually about 450 credits" — the typical cost of that task at your academy, from its own recent runs.
• "First run of this task here; it charges what it uses" — the task has no history at your academy yet.

When the balance is shown beside it, the line reads, for example, "Usually about 450 credits · 12,000 available". After an answer, the assistant shows what it used, such as "380 credits used".

Credits set aside while a request runs

Each task has a ceiling, its Most credits per request, set under Assistant tasks. When a request starts, that many credits are set aside from the balance. When it finishes, it is charged only what it used, and the rest is released.

Because the ceiling is set aside first, a request can be refused even when it would have cost less:

Not enough credits to reserve for this task. It sets aside up to 6,500 credits while it runs and charges only what it uses; the balance is 2,000. Top up, then try again.

Nothing is charged for a refused request.

Daily limits for the academy, programmes and learners

The Rules for both assistants card on the AI assistant page holds the daily limits in one table, with Credits a day and Requests a day for each row. An empty box shows "No cap", and the line under the table reads "The most each may spend in a day, counted across both assistants. Blank means no cap."

Each task can also have its own Daily credit cap and Daily request cap, under Assistant tasks, which cap that task across the whole academy.

To set the academy-wide limits:

1. Open Academy settings, then AI assistant.
2. In the Rules for both assistants table, enter whole numbers under Credits a day and Requests a day on each row, or leave a box empty for no cap.
3. Choose Save changes, enter Your password in "Save assistant settings", and choose Save changes again.

The confirmation reads "Assistant settings saved". Credit limits start at 1, and request limits run from 1 to 100,000. A limit applies from the next request.

How the limits work together

A request runs only when every limit that applies to it has room. A learner's question counts against the academy limit, the limit of their programme, their own learner limit and the task's caps, all at once.

Credit limits count a request that is still running at its full ceiling, not at what it will finally cost. Set a credit limit well above the Most credits per request of the tasks it covers, or every request will be refused: a limit of 1,000 credits a day blocks a task that sets aside 2,000 for each request. One interrupted part way, such as by a restart, ends within about twenty minutes.

A day runs from midnight to midnight in Coordinated Universal Time, which is from 1:00 am to 1:00 am in Nigeria.

When a limit or the balance runs out

• A daily limit is reached. The request is refused before anything is charged, and the assistant says that the daily limit has been reached. Learners read "You have reached the limit for now. Try again a little later." When the Each learner row caps requests, the Study Guide tells each learner how many questions they have left today.
• The balance is too low. Staff read a message such as "There are not enough AI credits for another answer." Learners read "The academy's AI allowance is used up for now", with a promise that it returns when the balance is topped up.
• A limit is refused when you save it. The message names the row as the academy, programme or learner daily limit, with the rule, such as "Academy daily limit: requests must be from 1 to 100,000. Blank means no cap." Correct the box, or leave it empty for no cap.

Everything your academy's assistants do is one of fourteen tasks, from drafting a lesson to answering a learner's question. The Assistant tasks page shows them in two tables, Staff copilot tasks and Learner assistant tasks. Owners and administrators decide there, task by task, which AI provider handles it, at what quality, what it may spend, and whether it runs at all. Every task starts switched on.

Open Academy settings, then AI assistant, and choose Open tasks beside Tasks.

The tasks

Programme authoring covers the assistant's work in the programme builder: its row ends "It also drafts assignments, rubrics and skills, and fills a rubric's empty cells.", and one switch and one set of limits apply to all of it. If its parts were ever set apart, the row shows Partly on, and saving its dialog sets them the same way.

Under each staff task, a line says where staff meet it, such as "Used in Programmes, Rubrics and Competencies.", "Used when marking submissions." or "Used by the copilot, from any page."

Each row gives Provider and quality, such as "OpenAI · Balanced"; Usually costs, such as "About 196 credits" or "No runs yet"; Most per request; Daily cap, such as "5,000/day"; and On, Off or Partly on, beside Change. While an assistant is off, its table reads, for example, "The staff copilot is off, so these tasks do not run until it is switched on.", with an AI assistant link.

Change a task

1. Choose the task's row. The dialog headed "Edit AI task" opens with the task's purpose.
2. Tick or untick This task is on. Off, nobody is offered the task, and everything still works by hand.
3. Under Provider, choose Anthropic or OpenAI. A provider Alethris cannot offer at the moment is marked "not available".
4. Under Quality, choose Economy, Balanced or Advanced. The line under it says what the tier is for, such as "The usual choice. Good answers at a moderate cost."
5. Set Most credits per request: each request reserves that many credits, is charged only what it uses, and is refused before it starts if it would cost more.
6. Optionally, set a Daily credit cap and a Daily request cap for the whole academy, or leave either empty for none.
7. Enter Your password, unless you confirmed it in the last few minutes.
8. Choose Save task, or Cancel to leave the task as it was.

The change applies to the next request of that task.

Choosing the provider and the ceiling

The provider is a privacy choice: "Each task sends its requests only to the provider chosen here — changing it changes where prompts are processed." That is why saving a task asks for your password.

Most credits per request is both a spending limit and a reservation. Set it too low and long answers are refused with "This task allows fewer credits per request than the answer needed — nothing was charged." An answer longer than the model can produce is refused with advice to choose a higher quality tier.

Switching a task off

A task that is off stops only that kind of work. Its button disappears, or the surface says so, for example "The Learner risk summary task is switched off." The staff copilot's profile preview runs through Academy insights, and the learner assistant's preview through Grounded question, so switching either off also stops that preview. With Grounded question off, the Study Guide tells learners it is not taking open questions in this academy.

When a task is not saved

• "That password was not accepted." Enter the password you sign in to Alethris with.
• "The settings changed elsewhere. Reload and try again." Someone saved the assistant settings first. Reload and make your change again.
• A number is refused. The message names the field and the rule, such as "Most credits per request must be 1 or more." A daily request cap runs from 1 to 100,000.
• "Anthropic is not available. Choose another provider.", or the same of OpenAI. Choose the other provider.
• "The task could not be saved. Try again in a moment." Nothing changed.
• "Assistant tasks are visible to the academy owner and admins." Your role cannot open this page.

The staff copilot profile decides how your academy's copilot speaks to your team: the name it goes by, the language it answers in, its tone, and the standing rules it follows in every request. The same profile governs everything the copilot does, from answering questions about the academy to drafting lessons and summarising a learner's case. Owners and administrators edit and publish it.

Open Academy settings, then AI assistant. In the Assistants card, choose Edit profile on the Staff copilot row, or Fix profile when its draft has something to fix. A note at the top says where the profile stands, such as "Version 2 is live and matches the draft below." While the copilot is switched off, a line under it reads "The staff copilot is off, so staff do not meet this profile yet.", with Switch it on. At a desk, Preview the draft and Publish sit beside the fields and stay in view as you scroll; on a phone they follow the fields.

Identity

• Display name — what staff see in the assistant, on every conversation. Until you change it, it is the academy's name followed by Copilot, or Academy Copilot when that would run past 80 characters. A name is needed before the draft can be saved.
• Language — English (Nigeria), Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba or Nigerian Pidgin. Answers come in this language whatever language the question was asked in.
• Greeting — the first line staff see when a conversation opens. Optional; say what it can help with.

Voice

• Tone — how answers should sound, in two to five words, such as "Direct, professional, no filler". Leave it empty for a neutral voice.
• Response length — Short, Balanced or Detailed.
• Citations — Required or Not required. Required asks the copilot to cite the lesson or other source behind each claim drawn from programme content. The information mark beside it says an answer without a source is rejected, but nothing refuses one. The copilot starts on Not required.
• Teaching style — how it explains things, in one sentence, such as "Lead with the recommendation, then the reasoning".
• Terminology — your academy's words, separated by commas, with the word to avoid in brackets, such as "cohort (not class), assessor (not grader)". Up to 50 terms.

Custom instructions

Instructions holds standing rules sent with every request, one short rule per line, such as "Use British spelling" or "Quote figures from the academy's records; never estimate them." They come on top of the platform safeguards, which already stop the copilot making assessment, credential or payment decisions. The field holds up to about 4,000 characters.

Every edit saves to the draft on its own. The bar at the top reads "Changes save to the draft. Nothing changes for staff until you publish."

Preview the draft

Preview the draft lets you hear the draft before anyone else does, and before it is published or the copilot is switched on. Only you see the answer, and nothing turns on.

1. Under Try a message, type what a colleague might ask, such as "Draft a short welcome note for a new cohort."
2. Choose Run preview.

The answer arrives as it would live, with the credits it used and a line naming the settings it was answered with, such as "Answered with your draft: Meridian Assistant · English (Nigeria) · balanced length · citations not required." Before anything has been saved, it answers with the profile every academy starts with. A preview spends credits like a real request, and it runs through the Academy insights task. Run preview waits while your latest edits are saving, and while the draft has issues to fix.

Publish the profile

1. Under Publish, choose Publish changes. The first time, the button reads Publish, or Publish and turn on when the copilot is already switched on.
2. Enter Your password.
3. Choose Publish, or Publish and turn on.

The confirmation reads "Behaviour profile published", and the copilot follows the new profile from the next request. Publishing never moves the copilot's switch: while it is off, the card reads "Publishing makes this the profile staff meet once the staff copilot is switched on." Switching it on in the Assistants card publishes a profile never published, as it stands. Discard draft changes puts the live version back into the draft.

When it does not work

• "One thing to fix before publishing." The draft breaks a rule, such as instructions that appear to contain a secret, like a line beginning "password:". Correct it and the notice clears. Until then a copilot never published cannot be switched on.
• "The draft has validation issues. Fix them, then publish." As above.
• "That password was not accepted." Enter the password you sign in to Alethris with.
• "The draft changed elsewhere. Reload and try again." A colleague edited the profile at the same time. Reload and check the draft.
• "Insufficient AI credits" The balance cannot cover what the preview sets aside; the owner or a finance administrator buys credits under Billing.
• "A preview runs through the Academy insights task, which is switched off." Switch the task on under Assistant tasks, or publish without a preview.

The learner assistant profile decides what your learners meet when they open the Study Guide: the name it answers under, the language it uses, how it explains things, and the rules it follows in every conversation. Learners never see the profile itself, only an assistant that behaves the way it says. Owners and administrators edit and publish it.

Open Academy settings, then AI assistant. In the Assistants card, choose Edit profile on the Learner assistant row, or Fix profile when its draft has something to fix. A note at the top says where the profile stands, such as "Not published yet. Switching this assistant on publishes it as it stands, or publish it here once it reads right." While the Study Guide is switched off, a line under it reads "The learner assistant is off, so learners do not meet this profile yet.", with Switch it on. At a desk, Preview the draft and Publish sit beside the fields and stay in view; on a phone they follow the fields.

Identity

• Display name — the name learners see on every conversation. Until you change it, it is the academy's name followed by Study Guide, or Learning Assistant when that would run past 80 characters. Whatever you call it, learners reach it from Study Guide in their menu.
• Language — English (Nigeria), Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba or Nigerian Pidgin. Answers come in this language whatever language the learner asks in. English (Nigeria) is standard English; choose Nigerian Pidgin for Pidgin.
• Greeting — the first line learners see when a conversation opens, such as "Hello. Ask me about any lesson, assignment or deadline in your programme." Optional.

Voice

• Tone — two to five words, such as "Warm, encouraging, plain English".
• Response length — Short, Balanced or Detailed.
• Citations — Required, the starting choice for learners, asks the Study Guide to cite the lesson or other source behind each claim drawn from programme content. The information mark beside it says an answer without a source is rejected, but nothing refuses one. Not required shows sources when they are available.
• Teaching style — one sentence, such as "Ask one guiding question before giving the answer".
• Terminology — your academy's words, separated by commas, such as "module (not unit), mentor (not tutor)". Up to 50 terms.

A programme's own Study Guide settings, on its Study Guide page, can override the answer length and teaching style for its learners, give the assistant words of its own, and add extra instructions.

Custom instructions

Instructions holds standing rules sent with every question, one per line, such as "Never give a final answer to a graded assignment; explain the approach instead." They sit on top of the platform safeguards. How far the Study Guide may help with assessed work is decided separately, by your academic integrity settings. The field holds up to about 4,000 characters.

Every edit saves to the draft on its own; nothing changes for learners until you publish.

Preview the draft

1. Under Try a message in Preview the draft, type what a learner might ask, such as "What can you help me with this week?"
2. Choose Run preview.

Only you see the answer, and nothing turns on. You can preview before the profile is saved, published or switched on: before anything is saved, the preview answers with the profile the academy starts with, under the name the editor shows. A preview spends credits like a real request, runs through the Grounded question task, and waits while your latest edits are saving or the draft has issues to fix.

Publish the profile

1. Under Publish, choose Publish changes. The first time, the button reads Publish, or Publish and turn on when the Study Guide is already switched on.
2. Enter Your password.
3. Choose Publish, or Publish and turn on.

Publishing never moves the Study Guide's switch. While it is off, the card reads "Publishing makes this the profile learners meet once the learner assistant is switched on."; learners have it once the switch on the Learner assistant row of the Assistants card is on, and switching it on publishes a profile never published, as it stands. Later publications replace what is live from the next question. Discard draft changes puts the live version back into the draft.

Learners on a programme whose Study Guide settings are Off in this programme still do not see the Study Guide.

When it does not work

• "One thing to fix before publishing." The draft breaks a rule, such as instructions that appear to contain a secret. Correct it and publish. Until then a Study Guide never published cannot be switched on.
• "That password was not accepted." Enter the password you sign in to Alethris with.
• "The draft changed elsewhere. Reload and try again." A colleague edited the profile at the same time.
• "A preview runs through the Grounded question task, which is switched off." Switch the task on under Assistant tasks.
• Published, but learners see no Study Guide. The switch on the Learner assistant row of the AI assistant page is off, or the learner's programme has switched the Study Guide off.

Academic integrity decides how much the Study Guide, your learner assistant, may help with work that is assessed; some call it an AI policy. There are four modes, from explaining how to solve a task to not offering the Study Guide at all. Your academy sets a default for every programme, and a programme can publish settings of its own on its Study Guide page to choose differently for its learners.

The four modes

As the academy's default, the last mode reads Off unless a programme allows it: learners are not offered the Study Guide in any programme that sets no mode of its own.

The rule for formal assessments

Two kinds of question never get more than clarification, whatever the mode says:

• questions asked with a formal assessment open, that is, an assignment of the type Formal assessment;
• requests to clarify what an assignment asks for, the Assignment clarification task.

A programme set to Explanations allowed still only clarifies a formal assessment. A programme set to Off in this programme offers nothing at all, and the Study Guide in its learners' other programmes does not read it. Help with a programme's work from another programme follows the stricter of the two settings.

Set the academy's default

1. Open Academy settings, then AI assistant.
2. In the Rules for both assistants card, under Default academic integrity, choose a mode. A new academy starts on Guided hints only.
3. Choose Save changes, enter Your password, and choose Save changes again.

The default applies to every programme that has not published an AI policy of its own.

Give a programme its own Study Guide settings

A programme's Study Guide settings decide how the Study Guide behaves for that programme's learners only. Their integrity mode takes the place of the academy's default, stricter or looser. They can also set the answer length, teaching style and words the assistant uses there, and add instructions. Anything left blank follows the academy's learner assistant profile.

1. Open Programmes and the programme, then choose Study Guide in this programme. The same link sits under More settings on the draft's Details page.
2. Under Help with assessed work, choose the mode for this programme.
3. Optionally, choose Show the other settings and set Answer length (or leave it on Academy default), Teaching style, Words to use and Extra instructions.
4. Choose Publish these settings, enter Your password, and choose Publish.

The confirmation reads "Study Guide settings published" and "They now apply to learners in this programme.", from their next question. Changes save as a draft as you make them, and learners notice nothing until they are published. The settings belong to the programme, not to its draft: publishing the programme does not publish them, and changing them never needs a new edition.

Until they are published, the card's status reads "Not published yet, so your academy's settings apply". Afterwards it reads Published, or "Published, with unpublished changes" while later edits wait; Publish the changes publishes them, and Discard the changes returns to what is published.

The old address of these settings, under the draft, now opens this page.

Who sets a programme's Study Guide

Owners, administrators and instructors change a programme's Study Guide settings; only an owner or administrator publishes them, confirming their identity. The card says so: "An Owner or Admin publishes these settings, confirming their identity."

What learners see

Learners are never shown the mode by name. They meet an assistant that explains, hints or only clarifies. In a programme that is off, Study Guide is missing from their menu, and its address reads "Your academy has switched name off for this programme."

When it does not work

• "Your role cannot change the Study Guide for this programme": only owners, administrators and instructors can. Ask an owner or administrator; your academy's assistant settings apply meanwhile.
• No publish button. Your role can change the settings but not publish them. Ask an owner or administrator to publish them.
• "That password was not accepted." Enter the password you sign in to Alethris with.
• "The settings could not be published. Try again in a moment." Nothing changed; try again.
• "The Study Guide settings could not be loaded": nothing has been changed; choose Try again.

The staff copilot answers questions about your academy by looking up its own records: its figures, the learners who need attention, the work waiting for review, its cohorts and its fees. Each answer links to the records it used, so you can check it. This is the Academy insights task, and it reads only; it changes nothing.

Owners, administrators, instructors, mentors and assessors can use it once your academy has turned the staff copilot on. It looks up only what your own roles can read: an assessor asking about fees gets no answer from payment records, and an instructor's answers about learners cover only the cohorts they are on the staff of.

Open the copilot

• From any page. Choose the round button with a sparkle in the bottom-right corner of the academy workspace. The copilot opens in a panel beside the page. The homepage builder has no button; it offers its own Assistant instead.
• From a programme. On a published programme's page, on a wide screen, choose Insights with assistant. The copilot opens starting from that programme.

The panel's header names the copilot and says what it reads. Under the name, a chooser sets where it starts: Whole academy, or one of your published programmes. Starting from a programme focuses the answers there, and the copilot still looks further across the academy when a question needs it.

Ask a question

1. Type into Ask about your academy…, or choose one of the suggested questions.
2. Send it.

The suggestions depend on your roles. They include "Which learners need attention this week, and why?", "What is waiting for review, and for how long?" and "Who still owes fees, and how much in total?" A question you have no access to answer is not suggested.

While the copilot works, the answer reads "Reading your records…". When it arrives, the sources under it name the records it drew on, such as a learner's record, a cohort, a submission, a risk case or a figure from Analytics, and open them when selected. The answer also shows the credits it used. Every question spends AI credits from the academy's balance.

Your conversations

Each conversation is kept so you can return to it.

• Your conversations, the clock-face button in the panel's header, lists your recent conversations by title. Choose one to carry on from where it stopped.
• New conversation, the pencil button, starts afresh.
• The bin beside a conversation deletes it. The dialog, "Delete this conversation?", warns that it and its answers are deleted for good; choose Delete conversation.

Conversations are yours alone; no colleague can read them. They are deleted automatically once their last message is older than the academy's Conversation retention setting, under Academy settings, then AI assistant: Not kept after the conversation ends, or 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days. The same setting applies to learners' Study Guide conversations, a change to it applies to conversations already held, and anyone may delete their own sooner. A copy of your own data, from Your data in the Alethris Hub, carries your questions but not the copilot's answers, which come from other people's records.

What the copilot will not do

The copilot reads; it does not act. It cannot change a record, send a message, or make an assessment, credential or payment decision. Its answers are written by AI and can be wrong, so check the sources before you rely on a figure. For questions about how Alethris works, rather than about your academy, use Alethris Help.

When it does not work

• No round button. The copilot is not on for staff, or its profile is unpublished, or you are a finance administrator, whose role cannot use it. The button is also hidden on the Alethris Help page.
• "There are not enough AI credits for another answer." The owner or a finance administrator buys more under Billing.
• "Too many questions in a short time. Try again in a moment." Each person can send the copilot up to sixty questions an hour. Wait, then send again.
• "The assistant is no longer available. Refresh to see what changed." The assistant was switched off or changed while the panel was open.
• "The question could not be sent. Try again in a moment." Nothing was lost.
• "That conversation could not be opened. Try again." It may have aged out of the retention period.

Wherever your staff write something long, the academy's staff assistant can write a first draft: each thing in the table below. Nothing it writes is applied until a member of staff has read it and chosen to apply it, and applying changes only the draft you are working on.

Drafting is open to staff who can edit the thing being drafted and may use the assistant, while the assistant and the task are on. Each draft spends AI credits; each control shows its usual cost.

Where the assistant drafts

All the programme rows, and the skills and rubric rows, are the Programme authoring task, which also drafts assignments and rubrics. Write lessons with the assistant, Start a draft with the Course builder, Check a programme with the assistant and Set up how your academy assesses cover those pages; this lesson covers what drafting shares. Only owners and administrators draft skills.

Ask for a draft

Most controls are one press: Suggest outcomes from my lessons drafts from what the programme already holds. To say more, choose the link under it, such as Describe it first…, and answer its question, such as What should learners be able to do by the end?. Where the draft already has items, choose first under the chips, such as What to do with your outcomes: Add more keeps what you have and adds new ones after them; Start over proposes a new set that replaces them when applied. Attach a syllabus, slides or past briefs to keep your own material and wording. Stop cancels a run before writing begins, at no charge; after that, the panel says it cannot stop and the draft arrives for review.

Review and apply

The draft appears for review, such as "6 outcomes proposed". Untick what you do not want, then choose the apply button, such as Apply 6 outcomes, Apply to the lesson or Apply to the details, or Discard to leave the draft untouched. Applying first saves anything unsaved on the page; if that fails, nothing is applied. Everything stays editable afterwards, and a message such as "Outcomes updated" reminds you to check each one before you publish. Lessons the assistant writes arrive marked Needs your read.

Differences on some surfaces

• Assignments. Suggest assignments for my outcomes drafts assignments with their briefs, hand-in items and deadlines within the programme's Length; Show the brief opens each one. A rubric or skill your academy does not have yet is listed under "Not in your academy yet", with Create skill, Create rubric or Leave out. Create all and apply creates them and applies in one press. Only owners and administrators create skills; for others, suggested skills are left out.
• The homepage. The assistant drafts a whole page, one section or a new section, beside the builder's preview. It never adds images, and example people and figures are written in square brackets for you to replace. Draft the homepage with the assistant covers it.
• Announcements. Insert into announcement puts the draft in the composer, and nothing is sent until you post it yourself.
• Rubrics. Fill N empty cells with the assistant writes a sentence for each empty cell of the rubric you are editing, up to 40 a draft, from its name, description, criteria and levels. The sentences go straight into the cells still empty, marked Drafted until you change them. Nothing is kept until you save the rubric. A new rubric with no criteria offers Draft this rubric instead: from what it judges and, on a rubric approved against skills, up to 8 skills, it drafts the criteria and their sentences into the table, and fills an empty name and description. Build a rubric covers the editor.

When a draft does not work

A strip says what to do:

• Not enough credits: the task sets aside its ceiling before it starts, and the balance cannot cover it. Nothing was charged; an owner tops up.
• Too many drafts at once or Busy at the moment: try again in a moment; nothing was charged.
• Drafting is not set up correctly: an owner or administrator chooses another provider in Assistant tasks, or contacts Alethris Support.
• Switched off: the assistant was turned off while it ran.
• The draft did not complete: choose Try again.
• Nothing was applied: the draft changed after this was written, or "It could not be applied:" with the reason. Choose Draft again, or Set it aside.

The staff copilot helps with two kinds of judgement that stay with people: assessing learners' work and following up learners at risk. In both it drafts and summarises, and in both a member of staff reads what it wrote and decides. Three tasks do this work: Marking checklist, Learner risk summary and Learner check-ins. Each can be switched off, and given its own provider, quality and limits, under Assistant tasks.

All three need the staff copilot turned on and published, and spend the academy's AI credits.

Draft a marking checklist on a submission

When you hold the review of a submission, an Assistant card sits above Record a decision with Marking checklist and the line "Points to check against the work. Only you see them; nothing is added to the review."

1. Open the submission and choose Claim this review, if you have not already.
2. In the Assistant card, choose Draft a checklist. The line beside it gives the usual cost.
3. Wait while it reads the brief and the rubric; it counts the criteria as it reaches them.
4. Read the checklist: points to look for under each criterion, and under From the brief any the brief sets beyond the rubric.
5. Mark the work yourself, then choose Close.

On an assignment with no rubric, the checklist comes from the brief alone.

Summarise a learner's risk

On a risk case, Summarise with assistant sits on the first open flag. It opens the copilot beside the case, about that learner, and asks straight away for a summary of their recorded risk signals and a suggested next step. The copilot reads the learner's attendance, submissions and flags, and lists the records it used. Its note says what it may and may not do: "Reads this learner's records. Decisions stay with staff."

Propose a check-in

In a risk case's Intervention panel, while nobody is on the case, the Assistant card offers Suggest a check-in. The proposal names a kind of follow-up, the flags it addresses, who is on it, a note and when to follow up, and you can change any of them first. Start this check-in starts it as an intervention as it then reads; Discard sets it aside and leaves the case as it was.

What the assistant never does

• It never grades, approves, rejects or asks for changes. The assessor records every decision.
• It never issues, replaces or revokes a credential.
• It cannot raise, dismiss, resolve or reprioritise a risk flag, and a proposed check-in starts only when a member of staff chooses to start it.
• Learners never see its summaries, proposals or checklists. Everything a learner reads about their work is written by the assessor.

These limits are built into Alethris: platform safeguards stop the assistants making assessment, credential or payment decisions whatever their instructions say.

When it does not work

• "The academy has no AI credits left for this request." The owner or a finance administrator buys more under Billing.
• "The assistant could not complete this checklist." Choose Try again.
• The card is missing. You do not hold the review, the staff copilot is off, or your role cannot use the assistant. When only the task is off, the card says so: "The Marking checklist task is switched off."

The Assistant usage page shows what your academy's assistants have spent and the requests behind it. Use it to see where credits go, to check the balance before a busy week, and to find out why one of your own requests failed. Owners and administrators open it from Academy settings, then AI assistant, with Open usage beside Usage and requests. Finance administrators can read it too: the AI usage link on the AI credits page under Billing leads to it.

Choose the range

The Usage card opens on This month. Choose the range chip to change it to Last 30 days, This quarter, Year to date or Custom…. A custom range asks for From and To dates; choose Apply. The dates the figures cover are printed beside the chip.

Buy credits, at the right of the same row, opens Billing, where the owner or a finance administrator buys more.

The figures

• Credits available now — the academy's balance, whatever range is chosen. A line under it adds, when they apply, how many credits are held for requests in progress, when the next credits expire, such as "1,200 credits expire in 12 days (17 September)", and any credits owed.
• Credits used — what the assistants spent in the range, staff and learners together.
• Requests, Succeeded and Failed — how many requests were made in the range, and how they ended.

A line under the figures names the tasks that spent most and the providers that carried them, such as "Most used: academy insights 12,400 · programme authoring 8,000 · everything else 1,200." When nothing was spent, it reads "No credits were spent in this range."

Credits held for a request in progress are not spent: when the request finishes, it is charged only what it used and the rest returns to the balance.

Your requests

Your requests lists the requests you made yourself, newest first: "Only your own requests. Learner conversations stay private." Finance administrators, who cannot use the assistants, do not see this card. Each row gives the task, with "preview" for a profile preview, the date and time, and the provider and quality tier. A badge says how it ended:

Show older requests loads the next twenty.

Why a request failed

The line under a failed request is in plain words, and most end "nothing was charged":

• "Not enough AI credits — nothing was charged." The balance could not cover the task's ceiling.
• "The AI credit balance could not be checked — nothing ran and nothing was charged." The balance could not be read, or the request waited too long to start. Try again.
• "A usage limit was reached — nothing was charged." A daily limit of the academy, a programme, a learner or the task was full.
• "The AI provider did not answer — nothing was charged." Try again later, or choose the other provider for the task under Assistant tasks.
• "The model declined to answer this request — nothing was charged." Rephrase the request.
• "The request was refused as unsafe — nothing was charged." Alethris's safety checks stopped it, whether they caught the request or the answer.
• "The answer came back unreadable — nothing was charged." The answer could not be read, or was too long to keep. Try again, or ask for less in one go.
• "The assistant was off when this ran." The assistants, the audience, the task or the profile was switched off at the time.
• "This task allows fewer credits per request than the answer needed — nothing was charged." Raise the task's Most credits per request, or ask for less in one go.

When the page does not show figures

• "Assistant usage is visible to owners, administrators and finance administrators." Your role cannot read assistant usage.
• "Usage for this range could not be loaded. Try another range or refresh." Nothing is lost.

The academy's Analytics page also charts AI requests and credits spent per day, in its Usage area.

When the staff copilot or the Study Guide cannot run, the message says why, and each reason has its own wording. This lesson lists them, what staff and learners each see, and who can put it right. Whatever the reason, nothing else stops: lessons, assignments, marking and announcements all carry on by hand.

Staff who can change AI settings, owners and administrators, see the fact with a link to the setting that fixes it, such as Open AI settings or Open Assistant tasks. Other staff see the fact and who can fix it. Learners see only the fact, because there is nothing for them to change.

The assistant is switched off

The assistant's switch is off, in the Assistants card under Academy settings, then AI assistant. The staff copilot and the Study Guide each have their own switch, so one can be off while the other is on.

• Staff: "The staff copilot is switched off. An Owner or Admin switches it on." The copilot's button is gone, and most assistant buttons are simply absent rather than explained.
• Learners: "Name is not switched on for this academy." The Study Guide page adds "Your lessons, assignments and results are unaffected." Study Guide is missing from their menu.

An owner or administrator selects the switch on the Staff copilot or Learner assistant row, enters their password and chooses Switch on. Switching on publishes the profile if it has never been published.

The profile has not been published

The assistant is switched on, but how it behaves has never been published. Its row on the AI assistant page reads Never published.

• Staff: "The staff copilot's profile has not been published yet. An Owner or Admin publishes it."
• Learners: the same as switched off: "Name is not switched on for this academy."

An owner or administrator publishes the staff copilot profile or the learner assistant profile from Edit profile on its row.

One task is switched off

The assistant runs, but the task behind this button does not.

• Staff: "The task task is switched off. An Owner or Admin turns it on.", such as "The Academy insights task is switched off."
• Learners: with Grounded question off, "Name is not taking open questions in this academy." A question refused when it is sent reads "Name is not available for that question in this academy."

An owner or administrator switches the task on under Assistant tasks.

A programme has switched the Study Guide off

The programme's published Study Guide settings, or the academy's default when the programme has none, are Off in this programme.

• Learners: "Your academy has switched name off for this programme." The Study Guide stays available in their other programmes where it is on.

A programme's setting is changed on its Study Guide page, from Study Guide in this programme on the programme's page.

The credits have run out

The balance cannot cover what the task sets aside for a request.

• Staff: "There are not enough AI credits for another answer." in the copilot, "Not enough AI credits for this draft." when drafting, "The academy has no AI credits left for this request." for marking checklists and check-ins.
• Learners: "The academy's AI allowance is used up for now. Name returns when it is topped up."

The owner or a finance administrator buys credits under Billing. Nothing is charged for a refused request.

A daily limit is full

A daily limit of the academy, a programme, a learner or the task has been reached. The limits reset at 1:00 am in Nigeria, midnight in Coordinated Universal Time.

• Staff: a message that the daily limit has been reached.
• Learners: "You have reached the limit for now. Try again a little later.", or "You have used today's questions; more tomorrow." when the learner limit caps questions.

An owner or administrator raises the limit in the Rules for both assistants table under AI assistant, or under Assistant tasks for a task's own cap.

Other messages

• "Too many questions in a short time. Try again in a moment." Each person can send the copilot up to sixty questions and start up to thirty conversations an hour, and the whole academy up to six hundred questions an hour. Wait, then send again.
• "Your role cannot use the copilot." Your roles at the academy do not allow this request.
• "The assistant is no longer available. Refresh to see what changed." A setting changed while the copilot was open. Refresh the page to see which reason applies now.
• "The AI provider did not answer — nothing was charged." The provider failed. Try again later; an owner or administrator can move the task to the other provider.
• "The assistant was off when this ran." On Assistant usage, a request refused because the assistants, the audience, the task or the profile were off at the time.