Ask in Trellis: Answers From Your Own Workspace, With the Sources Named
Ask opens on the account, person or call you're looking at, answers from your own Trellis workspace, and names the records behind the answer. It doesn't draft or send.
A question about an account usually costs you a search: who owns the platform budget, what your team last told their head of data, whether anyone has spoken to the CIO's office. The answer sits in the notes and call summaries, and finding it means tab after tab before a call you're already late for.
Ask answers that question on the page you're already on. You press it on an account, a person or a call, and type the question in plain words. The answer comes back with a Sources line naming the records it drew on. It reads your workspace and answers. It doesn't draft, and it doesn't send.
We announced Ask with the rest of Trellis in our Announcing Trellis article. Trellis comes with a Lead Line Partners engagement. We don't sell it on its own.
Ask opens already knowing what you're looking at
Ask is a button in the top bar. Press it on an account, a person or a call and the pane opens with a chip at the top that names the record. And your question is already about that record, so you can type "who owns the platform budget?" and skip the part where you explain which account you mean.
Plain words work. And when the answer needs more than the record you're on, you attach another one with @: another account, a person, a campaign or a Brain document. The answer arrives as it's written, with the Sources line underneath. A tougher question gets a Think harder switch, which gives it more thought before it answers.
The Sources line is the part to read first
The line names the records the answer drew on. Open one and check.
Say you ask who owns the platform budget at an account. The answer names a role, maybe the VP of data, and the Sources line under it names where that came from: a call summary, a note on the person, the person's own record. Before you repeat that role to a buyer, open one of those records. If the record says what the answer says, that part is checked. But if it doesn't, you've caught it at your desk instead of in front of the buyer.
Ask answers from what's in your workspace. And we don't publish an accuracy rate for Ask. The Sources line is there so you don't have to take any answer on trust.
When the workspace can't answer
When the records don't hold the answer, Ask is set to say what's missing instead of filling the gap with a guess. But that's an instruction Ask runs under, and we can't promise it holds for every answer, which is one more reason to read the Sources line.
Our advice, and it's only advice: if Ask can't tell you who signs off at an account, the likelier problem is that nobody wrote it down. So add the fact where it belongs, on the account or the person, and the next question has something to draw on.
Ask reads. It doesn't draft, send or dial
Ask can't draft emails or send anything, and the rule is wider than Ask: inside Trellis the AI can't send, approve or dial, or change who's in a sequence.
But you will sometimes want an email written from what Ask found. That happens outside Ask. Our team drafts outreach with AI outside Trellis, and a person approves it inside Trellis, in Copy Review, one person's sequence at a time. What you learned in Ask can shape that draft, but Ask won't write it.
What happens to an answer: pin it, save it, or let it go
An answer stays with you until you decide otherwise. It sits in your own Ask thread, and under each answer are three buttons:
- Pin to summary puts the question and the start of the answer on that account's or person's summary, where your team reads it.
- Save as note keeps the answer as a note on the account or person.
- Add to brief puts it in your next call brief for that person or account.
Answers you save from Ask show up on Before you dial, the short brief that opens on the call screen when you place a call. Or press none of the three, and the answer stays where it was, in your thread.
But not every question you ask on a busy day is worth keeping, and a summary your whole team reads shouldn't fill up with answers nobody checked. And you decide which ones reach it.
Where we'd use it, and where we wouldn't
Ask finds facts somebody already recorded: who signs off, what was said last time. Where nothing was recorded, there is nothing to find.
Questions that call for judgement, like whether to call someone today, are yours to make, so we wouldn't put them to Ask.
Frequently asked questions
Can Ask send emails or change anything on its own?
No. Ask reads your workspace and answers questions. It doesn't draft or send anything, and inside Trellis the AI can't send, approve or dial, or change who's in a sequence. Anything an answer adds to your workspace happens when you press a button under it: pin it to a summary, save it as a note, or add it to a call brief.
Where does Ask get its answers?
From what's in your Trellis workspace. It opens on the account, person or call you're looking at, and you can attach another record with @, such as another account, a person, a campaign or a Brain document. Each answer carries a Sources line naming the records the answer drew on, so you can open one and check it before you rely on it.
What does Ask do when it doesn't know?
It's set to say so, and to say what's missing, instead of guessing. But that's an instruction it runs under, and we can't promise it holds for every answer, so read the Sources line either way. Our advice: add the missing fact to the account or person.
What happens to an answer I don't keep?
An answer stays in your own Ask thread until you choose to keep it. Pin to summary puts the question and the start of the answer on the account's or person's summary, where your team reads it. Save as note keeps it as a note on that record, and Add to brief puts it in your next call brief.
How is Ask different from the account summary?
The summary is the standing view of an account or person that your team reads. Ask answers one question you type, on the record you're looking at, and the answer stays in your own thread. The two meet when you press Pin to summary: the question and the start of the answer go onto that summary, where your team reads it alongside everything else.
Can Ask be used during a call?
Ask opens on a call the same way it opens on an account or a person. During a recorded call, a cue can also offer to go deeper: it shows the question it would ask, you can edit it, and nothing runs until you press Ask. Answers you saved from Ask earlier also appear on the Before you dial card.
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