The Assistant is the chat panel in your timeline. Describe the edit you want and it builds a draft, then keep chatting to refine it.

How you word that first message shapes what you get back. For phrasing that works, see How to write prompts for AI editing in Selects.

When you open a new project, the chat is empty and ready. Type what you want done. If chat needs to analyze your footage first, it asks you to confirm the credits before anything runs, unless you have set [Permissions] to [Bypass]. You can also start from the Home screen: describe your video in the chat box there, and Selects creates the project and sends your message as the first one.

To build your draft by hand instead, see Start from scratch: creating a draft manually.

To build a draft in chat, tell the agent what you want. Your draft appears in the timeline when it is ready, and you can keep chatting to refine it.

For help wording a request, see How to write prompts for AI editing in Selects.

Once you have a draft, you can also review it by leaving notes on it as you watch and sending them to chat in one batch. See Review a draft with comments.

When you ask chat to export, it first shows you the finished draft and asks whether to export now or adjust it first.

What you can ask for covers six kinds of work. You do not pick between them, you just describe what you want and Selects uses the right one.

You can attach a script or an image to any message. Click [+] in the chat input and choose [Attach a file], or drag the file straight onto the composer.

You can attach up to 50 files to one message. Script files must be under 10 MB, and scripts must be under 45,000 characters, not counting timestamps. You can also paste a script straight into the input. Long pastes turn into an attachment chip showing the first line and the character count.

If a file is empty, an unsupported type, or unreadable, Selects tells you which so you can fix it. Scanned or image-only documents cannot be read as scripts.

To point the agent at something specific, type @ in the chat input and pick it from the list. You can mention a video or audio file, a draft, a synced timeline, or a folder. It saves describing which draft you mean when a project has several.

You can also mention clips straight from your timeline:

While the agent is working, Selects shows you its progress. The send button turns into a stop button, so click that to cancel.

Your draft stays editable while chat works. A synced timeline locks only while chat is making changes to it, and you can edit it again once chat finishes.

You can send more messages while the agent works. Type your next message, then press Enter or click the send button, which takes the place of the stop button while you type. Your message waits at the end of the chat and sends on its own when the current reply finishes.

You can still change a waiting message before it sends:

Clicking the stop button keeps your waiting messages, but they no longer send on their own. Click [Send now] to send one as a new message.

If a request fails, the error message above the chat input shows [Retry]. Click it to send your last message again without retyping it. Attached files are not sent again, so attach them again if the request needs them. If the agent had already done part of the work when the request stopped, the message shows [Continue] instead. What was done is kept, and [Continue] picks up the rest. An out-of-credits message shows its own next step instead of [Retry].

You can keep several chats going per project, so you never have to clear one to start another.

To search the open chat, click anywhere in the chat panel, then press Cmd+F (Ctrl+F on Windows). A search field replaces the chat title. Type a word to highlight every match. Press Enter to go to the next match or Shift+Enter to go back, and press Escape to close the search.

Anything you find yourself repeating to chat can be saved as a skill: how you switch between cameras, how long you like your cuts, how you name drafts and organize your files. Ask chat to save it, and later projects pick it up without you explaining again.

Chat replies with a link to what it saved, so you can read it back. To change a skill, tell chat what to adjust.

To choose a model, click the model name at the bottom right of the chat input. The menu groups models by who pays for the conversation.

[Credits] sits in the same menu. Hover it to see how much of your credits you have used, without leaving the chat. It shows a percentage and the credits used out of your total, for example 32% used (1,140 / 3,600).

To choose how much chat checks with you while it works, open the model menu and hover [Permissions], the last item. It shows the mode in use, and [Ask] is the default.

When chat asks before a paid step, the card shows what that step costs. Chat doesn't quote prices in its replies, so check the card for the cost.

Chatting with the Assistant uses Selects credits when you pick a model under [Use Selects credits].

There is no fixed price per message. How many credits a conversation uses depends on how long it runs and how much footage the agent has to read, so a quick question costs far less than a full draft built from hours of footage.

Analyzing your footage always uses credits, whichever model you chat on. See How AI analysis works in Selects and Selects app: plans and pricing.

If you are not sure which way suits you, see Which AI setup should you use in Selects?

If you already pay for Claude or ChatGPT, you can connect that subscription and chat in Selects without spending Selects credits on the conversation. Selects runs the model against your own plan instead.

This is usually the cheaper way to chat, because a flat monthly Claude or ChatGPT plan costs less per message than the paid API access behind the Selects models.

Connecting takes about a minute and only has to be done once. For the setup steps, see Which AI setup should you use in Selects?

Once you are connected, picking a model from [Use Selects credits] switches that conversation back to Selects credits. It does not sign you out, so you can move between the two whenever you like.

Yes. Chatting with the Assistant uses Selects credits when you pick a model under [Use Selects credits]. If you bring your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription, chatting does not use Selects credits, because your own plan covers the conversation instead. Analyzing your footage uses credits either way.

There is no set number of credits per chat or per message. What a conversation uses depends on how long it runs and how much footage the agent has to read to answer you, so asking for a full draft from a day of footage uses far more than a small trim. Hover [Credits] in the model menu to see how much you have used while you work.

No. Bringing your own AI subscription, such as Claude or ChatGPT, is optional. Selects includes its own models under [Use Selects credits], so you can chat and build drafts without paying for anything else.

The message "Claude rate-limited this request" means you have hit the usage limit on your own Claude plan, not a Selects limit. Wait for your Claude limit to reset, switch to a lighter Claude model, or pick a model under [Use Selects credits] to keep working.

The message "You've reached your ChatGPT plan's usage limit" means you have used up the limit on your own ChatGPT plan, not a Selects limit. Sending the message again won't work until the limit resets, so this error has no [Retry]. Wait for your ChatGPT limit to reset, or pick a model under [Use Selects credits] to keep working. You need the latest version of Selects to see this message.

When your Claude sign-in expires, the error message above the chat input shows [Reconnect Claude]. Click it to connect Claude again, then send your message again.