---
title: Dashboard Agent
description: Ask questions about a dashboard and its charts — and change its filters and time granularity — using a conversational AI assistant docked alongside the dashboard.
---

The Dashboard Agent is a conversational assistant docked as a panel on a
[published or embedded dashboard][ref-dashboards]. Ask it questions in plain
language about what's on the dashboard — and it answers using **live queries
against your semantic model**, not just the numbers already rendered on screen.

Because it queries the model directly, the agent can go beyond what a chart
shows. It can drill into a single chart, re-aggregate a metric, break a number
down by a dimension, pull a longer time range than the chart displays, and
summarize trends across the dashboard.

It can also **apply filters and change the time granularity** on the dashboard
you're viewing — just ask in plain language (for example, _"filter to last 30
days"_ or _"group by month"_). These changes affect only your own session and
are never saved to the dashboard — see
[Changing filters and time granularity](#changing-filters-and-time-granularity).

<Frame>
  <img
    src="https://lgo0ecceic.ucarecd.net/a50f87dd-126d-44ad-87e9-6c9a0af81c1a/"
    alt="Dashboard Agent panel docked alongside a published dashboard"
  />
</Frame>

<Note>
  There are **two different agent surfaces** with different capabilities:

  - **Dashboard Agent** (this page) — for viewers of a published or embedded
    dashboard: question-and-answer about what's on screen, plus changing your
    own filters and time granularity.
  - **[Workbook Agent][ref-workbook-agent]** — full authoring inside a
    [workbook][ref-workbooks]: creating reports, building and editing
    dashboards, and running analysis.

  The published Dashboard Agent can adjust **your own view** — filters and time
  granularity, for your session only — but intentionally cannot author or change
  the **saved** dashboard.
</Note>

## Opening the agent

Open a published dashboard and toggle the agent panel from the dashboard header
to start a conversation. Use **New Chat** to start a fresh thread.

The panel is docked to the right side of the dashboard and is **resizable** —
drag its edge to give the conversation more or less room. On narrow screens it
switches to a **compact mode** so it stays usable next to the dashboard.

## Focusing on a specific chart

<Note>
  Chart-level follow-ups and attached-chart chips are **rolling out**. If you
  don't see the **Ask a follow up question** action on a chart's menu yet, it
  hasn't reached your deployment.
</Note>

To ask about one chart in particular, open that chart tile's menu (`⋮`) and
choose **Ask a follow up question**. This opens the agent with that chart
**attached as context**, so your question is scoped to that chart's data.

Attached charts appear as **removable chips** in the chat input. To drop a
chart's focus, remove its chip. You can attach more than one chart to ask about
them together.

When a chart is attached, the agent receives a read-only snapshot of it — the
underlying SQL, the data, and the chart spec — along with the dashboard's
**current filter and time-granularity state**. It uses this as context for
answering and never edits the chart's definition. You can still ask it to change
the dashboard's filters or time granularity — see
[Changing filters and time granularity](#changing-filters-and-time-granularity).

## Changing filters and time granularity

Ask the agent, in plain language, to filter the dashboard or change a time
granularity, and it applies the change to the controls in front of you:

- _"Filter this dashboard to orders with status completed."_
- _"Show only the Outerwear category."_
- _"Filter to the last 30 days."_
- _"Group by month."_
- _"Reset the filters."_

How it works and what to expect:

- **Only controls that exist on the dashboard can be changed.** The agent can
  change a filter or time granularity only when the dashboard has a matching
  [filter or time-granularity control widget][ref-controls] for that dimension.
  If there's no control for what you asked about, the agent tells you so instead
  of changing anything. A control whose [visibility][ref-control-visibility] is
  **Disabled** also can't be changed.
- **Time granularity stays within the control's allowed granularities.** If a
  time-granularity control restricts which granularities viewers can pick, the
  agent only chooses from that set.
- **Changes apply to your session only.** They're applied the same way as
  changing a control by hand: reflected in the dashboard's URL — so you can
  share or bookmark the filtered view — but **not** saved to the dashboard. They
  don't affect what other viewers see, and the author's saved defaults are left
  untouched.

This works the same way on both published dashboards and
[embedded][ref-embedding] dashboards.

## Attachments

You can attach uploaded files to the conversation, and the agent can read their
contents — text, PDF, ZIP, and image files are supported.

<Note>
  Pasting an image directly from your clipboard into the chat may also be
  supported. Confirm this in your deployment before relying on it.
</Note>

## What the Dashboard Agent can and can't do

The published Dashboard Agent can answer questions and adjust your own view, but
it never changes the **saved** dashboard.

**It can:**

- Answer questions about what's on the dashboard from the dashboard's own data
- Run **read-only queries** against the semantic model to go deeper — drill
  down, break a metric down by a dimension, or pull a longer time range than a
  chart shows
- Apply filters and change the time granularity on the dashboard you're
  viewing, for dimensions that have a matching
  [control widget][ref-controls] (your session only — see
  [Changing filters and time granularity](#changing-filters-and-time-granularity))
- Explain how a metric or dimension is defined
- Look up the values available for a dimension
- Read the contents of [attachments](#attachments) you add to the chat

**It can't:**

- Save its filter or time-granularity changes to the dashboard — they apply to
  your session only and never change what other viewers see
- Edit the dashboard, or add/remove widgets
- Create reports or workbooks
- Change the data model

If you need any of those, use the [Workbook Agent][ref-workbook-agent] instead.

## Limitations

- **Filter and time-granularity changes need a matching control.** The agent can
  change a filter or time granularity only for dimensions that have a
  corresponding [control widget][ref-controls] on the dashboard, and the change
  applies to your session only — it is never saved to the dashboard. If you ask
  it to change something with no control on the dashboard, it explains the
  current state instead of applying a change.
- **Field switchers aren't driven by the agent.** The agent can read and change
  [filters and time granularities][ref-controls]; a
  [field switcher][ref-field-switcher] is not among the controls it operates, so
  ask it about the data instead and change the field yourself in the control.
- **No authoring on published dashboards.** The published Dashboard Agent
  cannot create reports or build dashboards, edit the saved dashboard, or change
  the data model. Those live in the [Workbook Agent][ref-workbook-agent].
- **Report search covers published reports only.** When the agent searches for
  existing reports, it sees published reports.

[ref-dashboards]: /docs/explore-analyze/dashboards
[ref-workbooks]: /docs/explore-analyze/workbooks
[ref-workbook-agent]: /docs/explore-analyze/workbooks/workbook-agent
[ref-controls]: /docs/explore-analyze/dashboards/widgets/controls
[ref-field-switcher]: /docs/explore-analyze/dashboards/widgets/controls#field-switcher
[ref-control-visibility]: /docs/explore-analyze/dashboards/widgets/controls#visibility
[ref-embedding]: /embedding/iframe/dashboards
