SaabiManual

Chapter 46 · The SAABI assistant · 2 min read

Choosing the assistant's brain

On this page

SAABI ships with an assistant that can read your books, answer questions about them and draft work for you to check. Before you use it, you choose which artificial-intelligence model does the thinking. SAABI calls this choice Intelligence, and it is the first card on the Get Started page.

The choice matters because it decides where your words go. One option keeps everything on your own computer. The other three send your questions — and the names in your books — to an outside service that you hold an account with. In every case the figures are read from your own company file and never come from anywhere else.

The Intelligence card sits at the top of the Get Started page. A green tick means the assistant already has a brain to think with
Figure 46.1The Intelligence card sits at the top of the Get Started page. A green tick means the assistant already has a brain to think with

Opening the Intelligence settings

There are two ways in:

  1. Go to Get Started and choose the Intelligence card.
  2. Or open the assistant and select the gear icon in its header.

Both open the same panel.

The Intelligence panel. The line under the heading always tells you what is connected right now — here, Local, on this machine
Figure 46.2The Intelligence panel. The line under the heading always tells you what is connected right now — here, Local, on this machine

The four options

Local runs a model that lives on your computer. Nothing you type and nothing from your books leaves the machine. It works with no internet connection and costs nothing to run. It is the default, and it is the right choice for most businesses.

With Local selected, the footer states the terms plainly: everything runs on this computer, and figures come only from your books
Figure 46.3With Local selected, the footer states the terms plainly: everything runs on this computer, and figures come only from your books

Claude, OpenAI and Gemini use a model hosted by Anthropic, OpenAI or Google respectively. Each needs an API key that you obtain from that provider and pay for directly. They are usually faster and handle longer, more complicated questions better than the local model.

Important

When you select one of the hosted options, SAABI tells you exactly what is shared: your messages and the names in your books go to that provider so it can understand the question. Your figures are still read locally. Read that line before you connect, and check it against your own obligations to your customers.

Connecting a hosted provider

  1. Open the Intelligence panel.
  2. Select Claude, OpenAI or Gemini.
  3. A key field appears below the four tiles, with the shape of that provider's key as a hint — sk-ant-… for Claude, AIza… for Gemini.
  4. Paste your key into the field. If you do not have one, the Get a key link opens the provider's page in your browser.
  5. Select Connect.
Selecting Claude reveals a key field, a Connect button and a plain statement of what is sent to Anthropic
Figure 46.4Selecting Claude reveals a key field, a Connect button and a plain statement of what is sent to Anthropic
The Gemini option follows the same pattern, with a Google key and the matching disclosure
Figure 46.5The Gemini option follows the same pattern, with a Google key and the matching disclosure
OpenAI is configured the same way — paste the key, select Connect, and the footer names the service your words are sent to
Figure 46.6OpenAI is configured the same way — paste the key, select Connect, and the footer names the service your words are sent to

The line under the INTELLIGENCE heading updates to show what is connected, and a small green dot marks the tile that is in use. To go back to running everything on your own machine, select Local again — your key is kept, so you can switch back later without pasting it a second time.

Where the choice applies

The Intelligence setting belongs to the installation, not to a company file. If you keep books for more than one business on the same computer, all of them use the brain you have chosen here.

A newly created company inherits the Intelligence setting already in place on the computer
Figure 46.7A newly created company inherits the Intelligence setting already in place on the computer

Note

The local model is downloaded and installed the first time you choose Local. Once it is on the machine, the panel simply shows it as connected. Downloading it again is not necessary, and the option is not offered when it is already present.

Saabi Desktop User Manual 1.0 · covers Desktop 1.0.0 · Something wrong or missing? Tell us