Use AI in canvas comments
Mention @ALLO in a canvas comment for a private AI reply, source-backed research, and explicit canvas edits.
“@ALLO, review this before the client sees it.” A normal comment waits for a teammate. An AI comment keeps the request in the thread, gives you an answer, and can do a canvas action when you ask for one explicitly.
Use AI comments when the question belongs to a specific piece of work. Use Object Chat when you want an ongoing conversation about one supported object, and AI Studio when you want to generate a new object from a prompt.
AI comments are one kind of anchored comment. For regular object and page comments, mentions, replies, and thread resolution, see Give feedback with comments and mentions.
Start an AI comment
- Open the canvas and add a comment to the object or page that provides the context.
- Type
@and select ALLO, or use the inline ALLO AI hint in the comment composer. Selecting the structured ALLO mention matters. Plain text that only looks like@ALLOdoes not start the AI workflow. - Write the request after the mention and send the comment.
- ALLO replies in the same thread. Continue the thread when you need a follow-up; replies keep the thread's AI context and privacy state.
Put the comment on the thing you mean. A comment on a post-it or document gives ALLO a concrete editing target. A page comment gives ALLO page-level context and is the right place to ask about a whole section.
Read ALLO's status reactions
The emoji that ALLO adds to an @ALLO request are system status, not reactions from a person.
| Reaction | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 👀 | The credit gate passed and the request is queued while ALLO prepares the canvas context. |
| 🧠 | ALLO has the canvas context and is analyzing, searching, or creating. |
| ✅ | The reply or canvas action completed. |
| ❌ | The work did not complete because of a credit, context, processing, or other failure. |
If you cancel the request, ALLO removes the in-progress reactions and does not add a success mark. In a private thread, these system reactions follow the thread's author-only visibility.
Keep the conversation private
The composer includes Keep this conversation with ALLO AI private. Select it before sending if you want the request and ALLO's replies to be visible only to you; the selected state is labeled Only me. Anything ALLO creates or edits on the canvas remains visible to people who can access the canvas, so private conversation is not a private canvas.
Private ALLO conversations do not support attachments. Remove attachments before sending, and replies in a private AI thread keep the same author-only visibility.
Ask for the kind of help you need
| Ask ALLO to... | What happens |
|---|---|
| Explain, compare, review, or recommend | ALLO answers in the comment thread using the request and the canvas context it received. |
| Research a topic | ALLO searches when the request needs outside evidence and shows verified website or image sources with the reply. Research-only requests stay in the comment thread. |
| Put, add, or turn research into the canvas | Ask naturally. ALLO creates concise, sourced post-it notes and infers a useful count and placement from the request and canvas context, so you do not need to specify those details. |
| Edit the post-it or document attached to the comment | State the edit explicitly. Text edits work only when the comment is attached to an editable post-it, document, or text object. |
Open verified website and image evidence from the comment's Sources control. It opens a Sources modal with the persisted evidence. A visible reply may include search-image attachments, but an author-only or private reply does not publish those attachments.
ALLO can read supported document embeds served from ALLO's first-party CDN. ZIP context is bounded to a central-directory inventory with entry names and sizes only; entry contents are not decompressed or read. If extraction or archive parsing fails, ALLO says that the file context is unavailable instead of guessing.
Page comments and comments on non-text objects cannot use the text-object edit action. If you see “This comment is not attached to an editable text object,” ask for an answer in the thread or ask ALLO to create a new supported canvas note instead.
AI comments use credits
Every model-backed AI comment reply uses workspace AI credits. A short text reply is commonly about 1-10 credits in current usage data. Research and canvas-edit requests make additional model calls, so they use more credits. The customer credit history labels these rows AI comment, separately from AI chat. See Understand AI credits and AI credit billing for the balance, estimates, and purchase options.
ALLO checks the workspace credit gate again when the queued comment worker starts, before it prepares context or calls the model. If another request consumes the remaining balance first, the comment can fail with ❌ before provider processing. Usage is finalized after model work; if the final charge exceeds available credits, the ledger can record an unbilled shortfall. Check the workspace's AI credit history after a reply to see the exact charge.
Review the result
Read the reply and its Sources control before turning an answer into a decision. For generated objects or webpage-style output, review the AI result before sharing. Canvas notes and edits are visible to people who can access the canvas, even when the request and reply were private, so keep sensitive details in the private thread and share only the canvas work product the team needs.
When ALLO does not reply
- The mention is just text. Delete it, open the
@picker, and choose ALLO so the comment contains the structured AI mention. - A private request will not send. Remove every attachment from the composer. Private ALLO comments are text-only.
- An edit fails on a page comment. Page comments have no editable text-object target. Ask for a new note or move the comment to the post-it or document you want edited.
- The reply needs evidence. Ask for research directly and open the reply's Sources control when you share the decision.
Related guides
- Give feedback with comments and mentions
- Mention people and canvas collaborators
- Ask about a canvas item
- Understand AI credits
- Buy and manage AI credits