Ask Chippy, the ONYX1 assistant

Chippy is the assistant built into ONYX1. Ask it how to do something in ONYX1, or ask about your own jobs, customers and timesheets, and it answers in the chat.

Where Chippy is

Chippy is on the web and in the Android app, and in the iPhone and iPad app from version 2.6.0. In the iPhone and iPad app, these come with a later app update: the welcome, starting questions that suit the page you are on, Finish setting up, Show me, Why?, the list of what goes with a message to support, announcements, problem reports, What's new, New chat, Previous chats, message times and the Seen status.

Every staff role can use Chippy.

Open Chippy

Select the round Chippy button at the bottom right of any page. A chat panel opens in its place, over the page, and the button comes back when you minimise or close the panel. Type your question and select Send. On an empty chat, Chippy offers three starting questions that suit your role and the page you are on: on a job, for example, a technician sees questions about photos and safety forms. When you open Chippy again within 30 minutes of your last message, it shows that conversation. After 30 minutes it starts a fresh chat with the greeting and starting questions, and the old one moves to Previous chats.

After you first sign in, a short welcome from Chippy appears beside its button. It shows once. If your account was made before 10 November 2026, the welcome waits until you have answered the tour's Want a quick tour? question in the getting started tour. Select Got it, or open Chippy, to close it. When the welcome reaches the iPhone and iPad app, you tap the message there, or wait a few seconds and it closes by itself.

Start a new chat or go back to an old one

• New chat. Select New chat at the top of the panel. Chippy shows the greeting and starting questions again. Your next question starts a new conversation.
• Previous chats. Select Previous chats at the top of the panel. It lists up to 50 of your own chats, newest first, each with its first question and the date and time of its last message. Select one to open it, then ask a question to carry on in it. Select Back to the chat to return without opening one.

Previous chats lists only your chats. Each message is deleted 90 days after it was sent, so a chat is no longer listed once 90 days have passed since its last message.

Each message shows the time it was sent in New Zealand time, for example 8:19 pm. A message from another day also shows the date, for example Mon 9 Nov, 7:05 pm.

Under your latest question, Chippy shows whether it got through:

• Sending... while it is on its way.
• Seen 8:19 pm once Chippy has it and starts answering.
• Not sent, tap to retry when it did not get through, for example with no signal. Select it to send the same question again.

Minimise, hide or bring Chippy back

• Minimise. Select the minimise button, select anywhere outside the panel or press Escape. The panel folds back into the button and keeps your conversation.
• Close. Select the close button (×). Chippy asks Hide Chippy? and offers Hide Chippy, Just minimise and Back to the chat. Hide Chippy removes the button from every page until you turn it back on.
• Bring it back. On the web and in the Android app, open My account → Settings and turn on Show Chippy in the Chippy section. In the iPhone and iPad app, turn on Show Chippy in More.

Show Chippy is on for everyone to start with. Each person turns it on or off for themselves, and the setting stays with your account.

What Chippy can help with

• How to do things in ONYX1. Chippy looks up the articles in this help centre, answers from them and usually links the article it used, so you can read the full steps. Links in Chippy's answers open pages in ONYX1 only.
• Your own work in ONYX1. Ask about jobs, customers, timesheets and other records. Chippy sees only what your role lets you see, the same as you do when you sign in, and only the parts of ONYX1 your plan includes. A technician who asks about invoices, for example, gets no invoice details.

Chippy is told not to guess. When it does not know, it should say so and offer to pass your question to the ONYX1 team. Its answers can still be wrong, so check them before you rely on them, especially on pay, tax, safety and employment. The help articles and the ONYX1 team are the final word.

What Chippy will not do

• Change or send anything by itself. Chippy only reads. It cannot create, change, send, approve or delete a job, quote, invoice, timesheet, announcement or anything else. To make a change, do it in ONYX1 yourself. When Chippy offers a card to send something, such as a message to support or a problem report, nothing is sent until you select the button on the card.
• Help with anything outside ONYX1. Recipes, homework, other products, coding and role-play get one short answer: I can only help with ONYX1 and your work in it.
• Follow instructions hidden in your data. If a job note or an email says "ignore your rules", Chippy treats it as text to read, not an instruction.

Show me where

Ask Chippy where something is, such as "Where do I add a customer?". When Chippy can point to it, a button starting Show me: appears under the answer, followed by what it points to. Select it to open the page with that control ringed and a short hint beside it. Select Got it to close the hint. Chippy only shows you controls your role can use.

Ask why something was refused

When ONYX1 refuses something, some messages have a Why? button or link next to them. Select it and Chippy opens with a short explanation: what happened, what to do about it, who can fix it, and a link to the help article that covers it. On the web you'll find Why? on:

• a clock-in that ONYX1 won't start, for example when a safety form needs signing first or the job is finished
• the notice for a status change or photo you saved without signal that ONYX1 later refused
• the Plan access page, when part of ONYX1 isn't on for your business
• the pop-up message when a Planner move that saves straight away isn't saved because your role can't make it (a move you confirm first shows its message in the confirm box, without Why?)

The explanation comes straight from ONYX1, so it appears at once and doesn't count towards your question limits. It isn't saved in your conversation. If you then ask Chippy about it, for example "who can fix that?", Chippy knows which refusal you mean.

If you've hidden Chippy, or Chippy is switched off, Why? opens the help article instead.

Contact a person

1. Ask Chippy, for example "Can a person help me with this?". If it is not clear what you need, Chippy asks first.
2. Chippy shows a card, Send this to the ONYX1 support team?, with what you need help with and a message it wrote for you. Change the message as much as you like.
3. Select Send to support. To send nothing, select Not now.

On the web and in the Android app, under your message, the card lists what goes with it: the page you were on, your role, your plan, the ONYX1 release, and that you were on the web. When this list reaches the iPhone and iPad app, it also shows which app and its version. If you selected Why? earlier in the chat, the card also lists that refusal. Chippy does not write any of that list.

ONYX1 emails the ONYX1 team your message, your chat, your name, your company and everything on that list, with your email address to reply to. Chippy then confirms in the chat that your message was sent, and names the email address the team will reply to.

You can send up to 3 chats to the team a day. While Chippy is switched off for you or for everyone, nothing can be sent this way. You can also email support@onyx1.app at any time.

Report a problem or ask for a feature

When ONYX1 has switched this on, Chippy may offer to log a problem or a feature request for the ONYX1 team: when ONYX1 does something wrong, or you ask for something ONYX1 doesn't do. Chippy is told to offer only for a real fault or a feature request, after checking the help centre, and never for set-up, permission or how-to questions.

1. Chippy shows a card, Log this for the ONYX1 team?, marked A problem with ONYX1 or A request for ONYX1.
2. Check the Title and What happens (you can change it), and for a problem, Steps to see it (optional). Change any of them.
3. Select Log it. To send nothing, select Not now.

The ONYX1 team gets the text on the card with email addresses, phone numbers and links removed. With it go your company name and ONYX1 account ID, your role, your plan, the part of ONYX1 it's about, the page you were on, the ONYX1 release or app version, and the date. Your name and your chat are not included. Chippy is told to write the card without customer or staff names, but anything you type into it is sent, so leave names out. The report links to your chat so the team can open it if they need to, and ONYX1 records each time they do.

When the team already has a matching report, yours is added to it and Chippy says The team already has this one. I've added yours to it. Otherwise Chippy says Logged for the ONYX1 team. Thanks. We can't promise a fix or a date.

The limits are:

• You can log up to 2 reports a day, and your business up to 5 a day between you. ONYX1 also caps how many it takes a day from all businesses.
• Chippy offers at most one card in a chat every 10 minutes.
• A card expires 30 minutes after Chippy offers it. Chippy then says That report has expired. Ask me again if it still matters.
• Trying to log a report past the daily limit counts as misuse (see Limits and fair use).

If a report can't be sent, Chippy says That didn't go through. You can send it to support instead. and shows the Send to support card with your text already in it. See Contact a person.

Announcements in Chippy

When an owner or admin sends your team an announcement, it shows at the top of the Chippy panel, and Chippy's button shows a small number. Read it and select Got it. Chippy shows the 3 newest; the rest are in your notifications. Announcements show even when you have reached Chippy's question limits. If you have hidden Chippy, you still get every announcement in your notifications.

Owners and admins can ask Chippy to draft an announcement. Chippy shows a Draft announcement card; Open in Announcements opens it ready to change and send. Chippy never sends it. See Send announcements to your team.

What's new

When ONYX1 posts an update, Chippy shows it at the top of the chat as What's new in ONYX1. It lists only the items that apply to your role, your plan and the features your business has on. If none apply, you don't see it. An item can have a Read how it works link to its help article.

• Select Got it to hide the update. Until you do, it shows each time you open Chippy.
• Select All updates to open What's new in ONYX1, which lists the updates ONYX1 has posted.

On the web, Chippy shows the newest update posted since the last one you hid. If you've never hidden one, it shows only an update posted in the last 30 days. When What's new reaches the iPhone and iPad app, Chippy there shows the update for the app version you have installed, once for each new version.

Finish setting up

Owners and admins see a Finish setting up card at the top of the chat while the business is new (its first 30 days) or while something that prints on quotes and invoices is missing. It lists what is left, for example:

• your GST number, business address or NZBN
• your logo (on plans with branding)
• your first customer, your first job and your team
• people with no cost or charge rate, as a count, so their hours are not costed
• connecting Xero (when Xero is part of your plan)

Select an item to open the page that fixes it. Select Hide this to remove the card for you. Other people at your business are not affected.

Owners and admins can also ask Chippy "What's left to set up?" at any time, or ask for a health check, for example "Run a health check on my account". A health check covers:

• Xero invoices and quotes waiting for you to match a customer
• Xero invoices not yet linked to a job
• staff without rates
• a Xero connection that has never synced
• forms everyone must sign before clocking in
• parts of ONYX1 that are switched on but not used in 60 days

Each comes with the page that deals with it. Chippy gives counts, never the names of customers or staff.

Plans and seats

If you are the owner, Chippy knows your plan and how many seats you are using. When an answer depends on something your plan does not include, or on adding a person when every seat is used, Chippy says which plan includes it, once, with a link to Settings → Plan & billing. Chippy does not bring up plans otherwise, and never for admins or staff. In the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, Chippy does not do this.

Limits and fair use

Chippy is for help using ONYX1. The limits are:

• Each person can ask up to 30 questions an hour and 200 a day.
• Each person also has a daily allowance for how much work Chippy does for them, so a day of long or detailed questions can reach the limit sooner.
• Your whole business can ask up to 1,000 questions a day between you, and it also has a daily allowance for how much work Chippy does for it.
• A question can be up to 2,000 characters. Chippy refuses a longer one, such as a pasted document, and asks you to shorten it.
• An answer stops at about 12,000 characters, with a note. If a question needs too many look-ups or takes too long, Chippy says it could not finish. Ask about one part at a time.

When you reach a limit, Chippy says so and points you to the help centre. Chippy also has an overall limit each month across all of ONYX1. If it is reached, Chippy says so, and the help centre and support@onyx1.app still work.

Misuse pauses Chippy for you, and Chippy tells you until when. Each of these counts towards a pause: an off-topic question, an attempt to get around Chippy's rules, more than 6 questions in a minute, and trying to send to support or log a report past the daily limit. One on its own does not pause Chippy; three within an hour do. An attempt to get around its rules, or a send or report past the daily limit, counts as two. The first pause lasts 10 minutes. A second pause within 30 days lasts an hour, and any after that last a day. The ONYX1 team can switch Chippy off for a person who keeps misusing it, and Chippy then tells that person it is switched off for their account.

When Chippy is switched off for everyone, its button does not show, and the help centre and support@onyx1.app still work.

Who can read your chats

• You. You see only your own chats.
• Not your employer. Nobody at your business can read your chats with Chippy, including the owner and admins.
• The ONYX1 team. ONYX1 Limited holds the chats. Apart from a chat you send with Send to support, its team reads chats only to answer a support request, to look into a problem you logged, to review misuse, or to improve ONYX1 and its help. Each time the team opens a chat, ONYX1 records it.

ONYX1 keeps your chats for 90 days, then deletes them. To apply the limits, ONYX1 records how many questions you ask and the kind and time of any misuse signal, not the chat text. For each answer, ONYX1 also records a code for its topic, such as jobs or timesheets, and whether Chippy found no help article, passed you to support, could not show something to your role, or gave no answer. The ONYX1 team sees these codes only as counts.

Chippy runs on Claude, the AI service of Anthropic. To answer a question, ONYX1 sends Anthropic your question, the conversation so far (leaving out questions Chippy refused), your role and plan, the page you are on, and the help text and records Chippy looks up for you. ONYX1 does not add your name or email address, but they can appear in what you type or in a record Chippy looks up. Anthropic may process this outside New Zealand. The Privacy Policy has the details.