Chat settings

Learn how to control response style, reasoning depth, scope, and external context from Chat settings.

Written By Mark Ku

Last updated About 6 hours ago

Overview

Chat settings are the controls next to your prompt input that shape how Chief answers.

The main settings are:

  • Expert Voice

  • Intelligence

  • Using

  • Public Data

Together, these let you tune who the assistant sounds like, how deeply it reasons, which project sources it uses, and whether public web context is allowed.

Open Chat settings

  1. Open or start a new chat.

  2. In the prompt bar area, click the settings row / chips

  3. Expand the settings panel if needed.

You can collapse or expand this row quickly with Opt + Shift + J.

Expert Voice

Expert Voice controls persona/voice style for responses.

What you can do:

  • keep Default voice

  • choose a Persona that Chief responds with

  • reset back to default voice

To change Expert Voice:

  1. Open Chat settings.

  2. Click Expert Voice.

  3. Select a voice from the list.

  4. Submit your prompt.

Chief responds in that selected voice style until you change or reset it.

ℹ️ Good to Know: The selected voice appears as a chip and can be removed quickly with the x reset control.

Intelligence

Intelligence controls reasoning mode for the prompt.

Current modes:

  • Automatic - Chief either Fast or Expert mode based on prompt complexity

  • Fast - prioritizes speed

  • Expert - deeper reasoning, slower than Fast

  • Deep Intelligence - long-running multi-agent workflow (available only on Paid plans)

To change Intelligence:

  1. Open Chat settings.

  2. Click Intelligence.

  3. Select the mode you want.

  4. Send your prompt.

Using

Using controls chat scope (the project sources that power answers).

Learn more here: How to manage scope

It can include:

  • files

  • labels

  • collections

  • concepts

To update scope:

  1. Open Chat settings.

  2. Click Using.

  3. In the scope picker/flyout, add or remove sources.

  4. Confirm staged changes (add/remove).

You can also clear scope with the x control on the Using chip.

The chip summary shows the current scoped count (for example 12 files, plus labels/collections/concepts when present).

Public Data

Public Data controls whether Chief can augment Library context with public web data.

Learn more here: Chat with Public Data Sources

Modes:

  • Automatic - Chief decides when to use public data and cites when used

  • Off - only your Library context is used

To change Public Data mode:

  1. Open Chat settings.

  2. Click Public Data.

  3. Choose Automatic or Off.

💡 Tip: Even with Public Data controls, prompt phrasing can influence behavior. The UI includes an override hint command like use public data.

How settings work together

A single prompt is shaped by all four controls at once:

  • Expert Voice -> response tone/perspective

  • Intelligence -> reasoning depth/speed

  • Using -> knowledge scope

  • Public Data -> whether external context may be added

If answers feel off, verify all four before retrying.

Troubleshooting

If output quality is not what you expect:

  1. Confirm Using scope is correct first.

  2. Switch Intelligence to Expert for deeper reasoning tasks.

  3. Check whether Public Data is set to Off when you expected external context.

  4. Reset Expert Voice to default to isolate tone effects.

  5. Retry with a shorter prompt and one clear objective.

If you still see inconsistent behavior, share your settings combination and sample prompt with support.