The Stix and Brix AI chat goes far beyond simple question-and-answer. Behind every response, the AI can use 25+ specialized tools — from searching your company documents and the web, to generating PDFs, executing code, and sending emails. This article explains the tools you'll see in action, how Smart Search works, and how to customize your AI experience.
How AI Tools Work
When you ask a question, the AI decides which tools to use automatically. You'll see a collapsible tool indicator appear inline in the response showing what's happening in real time:
- Blue spinner — tool is running
- Green checkmark — tool completed successfully
- Red X — tool encountered an error
The indicator header shows a summary like "3 tool(s) (1 running, 2 completed)". Click the chevron to expand and see each tool's name, search query (if applicable), and execution time.
Smart Search
Smart Search is a meta-tool that orchestrates multiple search strategies in a single request. Instead of running one search at a time, it combines results from several tools simultaneously — for example, searching your company documents AND the web in parallel — then returns the most relevant combined results to the AI.
When Smart Search runs, the tool indicator shows the parent smart-search tool with sub-tools listed beneath it (e.g., web-search + query-docs), each with their own status indicator.
Available Tools
You don't need to call these tools manually — the AI uses them automatically based on your question. Here's what each one does:
Search and Retrieval
| Tool | What It Does |
|---|---|
| smart-search | Orchestrates multiple search tools in parallel for comprehensive results |
| query-docs | Searches your company's uploaded documents |
| web-search | Searches the internet for current information |
| retrieve-memory | Recalls information from previous conversations |
| gather-context | Collects relevant background information for your query |
| research-topic | Conducts in-depth research on a topic |
| read-document | Reads and extracts content from a specific document |
| retrieve-context-details | Gets detailed context for specific items |
Code and Workspace
| Tool | What It Does |
|---|---|
| execute-code | Runs code in a sandboxed environment and returns the result |
| workspace-execute | Executes code with access to workspace files and data |
File Generation
| Tool | What It Does |
|---|---|
| generate-pdf | Creates a PDF document based on your request |
| render-pdf | Renders and formats a PDF for download |
| generate-image | Creates images based on your description |
| send-email | Sends an email on your behalf |
Integrations
| Tool | What It Does |
|---|---|
| trainual-search | Searches Trainual knowledge base |
| superclear-analyze | Runs SuperClear AI analysis on construction photos |
| nspec-analytics | Queries NSPEC inspection data and analytics |
| nspec-query | Queries NSPEC database for specific data |
| beci-directory | Looks up people and contacts in the BECI directory |
Memory and Intelligence
| Tool | What It Does |
|---|---|
| store-memory | Saves important information for future conversations |
| detect-emotion | Detects emotional tone to adjust response style |
| classify-intent | Classifies your query to route it to the best tool |
| add-annotation | Adds notes or annotations to documents |
| context_roadmap | Plans the approach for complex multi-step questions |
File Outputs
When the AI generates a file (PDF, image, spreadsheet, etc.), it appears as a file card in the chat with two buttons:
- View — opens the file in a new browser tab
- Download — saves the file to your device
The card shows the filename, file type, and size. Supported output formats include PDF, PNG, JPG, HTML, JSON, CSV, Markdown, XLSX, DOCX, and ZIP archives.
Extended Thinking
Extended Thinking lets the AI show its reasoning process before responding. When enabled, a collapsible "Thinking..." panel appears above the AI's response showing the step-by-step reasoning.
How to Enable
- Look for the lightbulb icon in the message input area
- Click it to toggle Extended Thinking on or off
- When ON, the tooltip reads: "Extended Thinking ON — Brix shows its reasoning process before responding. Uses more tokens but produces deeper analysis."
When to use Extended Thinking: Turn it on for complex analysis, multi-step problems, or when you want to understand how the AI arrived at its answer. Turn it off for quick questions — it uses more tokens and takes longer to respond.
Conversation Search
Search across your entire conversation history to find past discussions:
- In the conversations sidebar, type in the "Search conversations..." field
- Results appear after 2+ characters with a 400ms debounce
- Each result shows: conversation title, a relevant snippet, relative time, and relevance score
- Click a result to open that conversation
Managing Conversations
The conversations sidebar lets you organize your chat history:
- New Chat — starts a fresh conversation
- Pin — pin important conversations to the top
- Edit Title — rename a conversation inline
- Archive — move to a collapsed "Archived" section
- Download — export the conversation as a Markdown file
Conversations are grouped by time: Today, Yesterday, Past 7 days, and Older. Pinned conversations always appear at the top.
Customizing Your AI
Click the gear icon in the chat header to open Customize Responses. You can adjust:
| Preference | Options | What It Controls |
|---|---|---|
| Model Preference | Default (Sonnet 4.6), Sonnet 4.6, Opus 4.6 | Which AI model powers your chat |
| Effort Level | Low (faster), Medium (balanced), High (more thorough) | How much effort the AI puts into each response |
| Tone | Default, Professional, Friendly, Concise | Communication style |
| Response Length | Default, Short, Detailed | How verbose the AI is |
| AI Role | Default, Subject Matter Expert, Teacher, Quick Assistant | How the AI approaches your questions |
| Your Role | Default, Engineer, Developer, Architect, PM, Executive, Director, Inspector, Technician, Coordinator, Admin | Helps the AI tailor responses to your perspective |
| Timezone | UTC, US time zones (Eastern through Hawaii) | Date and time references in responses |
| AI Nickname | Any text | What you want to call the AI |
| Your Nickname | Any text | What the AI calls you |
| Custom Instructions | Multi-line text | Persistent instructions the AI follows in every conversation |
| Ask Clarifying Questions | On / Off | Whether the AI asks follow-up questions before answering |
Citations
When the AI uses information from your documents, it adds inline citation numbers (e.g., [1], [2]) in the response. Click a citation to see the source document, a relevant snippet, and a relevance score. You can open the full source document from the citation preview.
Sending Attachments
You can attach files to your messages:
- Images — upload or drag-and-drop PNG, JPEG, GIF, or WebP files
- Documents — upload PDF, DOCX, XLSX, CSV, and other file types
Uploaded images show as thumbnail previews with a processing status indicator. Documents show as filename cards with upload progress.
Context Limit
Very long conversations may reach the AI's context limit. When this happens, a yellow banner appears: "Your conversation has reached its context limit. Please start a new conversation to continue." The message input is disabled until you start a new chat.
Giving Feedback on Responses
On each AI response, you'll see:
- Copy button — copies the response to your clipboard
- Thumbs up / Thumbs down — rate the response quality (helps improve the AI)
Troubleshooting
Tools are taking a long time
Solutions:
- Complex queries that use multiple tools (especially Smart Search + code execution) naturally take longer
- If a tool shows an error (red X), try rephrasing your question
- Lower the Effort Level in preferences for faster responses
Smart Search returns no relevant results
Solutions:
- Try being more specific in your question — include keywords from the document you're looking for
- Check that the relevant documents have been uploaded to the Document Library
- Ask the admin to verify document indexing is complete
Extended Thinking makes responses very slow
Solutions:
- This is expected — Extended Thinking uses significantly more tokens and processing time
- Turn it off for quick questions; use it only for complex analysis
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Need help? Contact our support team at support@nxtconstruction.ai
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