Context awareness
How Web Chat knows what email, event, or task you're looking at — so you can say "this" and "the meeting" without explaining.
When you open Web Chat from a specific item, alfred_ knows what you’re looking at. This is the difference between a generic chatbot and a useful assistant.
What gets passed as context
When the chat opens, alfred_ sees:
- The type of thing you’re viewing (email thread / calendar event / task / kanban card / note)
- The content — full thread, event details, task title and description
- The related items — linked tasks, notes, and threads
- The people involved — sender, attendees, contacts
What you can say with implicit context
- “reply to this with…”
- “move this to next Tuesday”
- “convert this to a task”
- “save this as a note”
- “summarize this for me”
- “what’s the history with this person?”
- “draft a follow-up”
alfred_ resolves the pronouns (“this”, “them”, “the meeting”) to the right item.
Cross-item references
Even with one thing in context, you can mention others:
- “reply to this saying I’ll bring the deck Sarah sent yesterday”
- “schedule a follow-up to this email for next week, same time as my Acme call”
alfred_ pulls the referenced items via search and uses them as additional context.
Clearing context
Sometimes you want to ask something unrelated to what you’re viewing:
- Open chat from a neutral surface (Cmd+J anywhere)
- Or say “let me ask something different” — alfred_ drops the active context
Context expires
Active context lives for ~10 minutes after your last interaction. After that, alfred_ won’t assume “this” refers to the email you were viewing — it’ll ask for clarification.