Getting Started
Learn how to interact with groundcover Agent Mode
No setup required - the Agent is available directly in the groundcover UI.
Opening the Agent
Click the Agent icon in the sidebar or press Ctrl+Cmd+A (Mac), Ctrl+Win+A (Windows), or Ctrl+Super+A (Linux) to toggle the chat panel. The panel stays open as you navigate the platform so you can ask questions in context.
Press Cmd+Shift+E to expand the Agent to full screen for longer investigations.
Template Cards
When you start a new conversation, the Agent shows template cards - pre-built prompts covering common scenarios like error investigation, performance analysis, infrastructure health, and more. Click a card, fill in the placeholders for your specific workload or namespace, and the Agent starts working.
@Mentions
Type @ in the chat input to give the Agent precise context. The picker supports:
Workloads
A workload and its namespace, cluster, and environment context; use this category for DaemonSets
Metrics
A specific metric
Monitors
A monitor configuration
Dashboards
A dashboard and its widgets
Connectors
A connected external system whose tools the Agent can use
K8s
Clusters, Namespaces, Nodes, Deployments, Pods, Stateful Sets, Replica Sets, Cron Jobs, and Jobs
Data Sources
A configured data source
Keys
An attribute key such as service.name; select a key and then a value to add a precise key:value pair such as service.name:checkout
For a metric mention, choose Metrics and search by name. For a key:value mention, choose Keys, select the key, and then select its value.
Recently mentioned entities appear at the top for quick access. You can search by name or click a category header to filter.
Investigate errors in @checkout-service Compare latency between @api-gateway and @auth-service Check deployment failures with @GitHub for @service.name:checkout
When you mention a resource, its full context (such as namespace, cluster, and environment) is automatically included in your request. Key and key:value mentions work across the selected time range and available data sources.
Add images
Attach images when visual context is faster to show than describe—for example, a screenshot of an error state, an architecture diagram, or a sketch for a new dashboard. Paste or drag an image into the prompt, or select Add content → Add image. Add a short instruction that tells the Agent what to inspect or create.
You can attach up to five static PNG, JPEG, or WebP images. Each image can be up to 3.75 MiB, with a 10 MiB combined limit per message.
To attach the groundcover page you are viewing, press Ctrl+Cmd+S (Mac), Ctrl+Win+S (Windows), or Ctrl+Super+S (Linux). The page snapshot is added to the prompt with its page context; review it and add your question before sending.
Guide an active run or queue follow-ups
You do not need to wait for the Agent to finish before adding another prompt:
Press Enter or click Send while a run is active to queue the prompt. Queued prompts run in order after the active run finishes.
Press Cmd+Enter (Mac) or Ctrl+Enter (Windows/Linux) to steer the active run. The Agent incorporates the instruction at its next checkpoint without restarting the investigation.
Expand the queue to drag prompts into a different order, edit them, remove them, or Push one to interrupt the active run and run that prompt next.
/ for Skills
Type / in the chat input to attach a Skill to your next message. A picker shows your Skills; select one and the Agent will follow its Instructions for that prompt.
The Agent also activates matching Skills automatically based on each Skill's When to use field - typing / is for when you want to force a specific Skill.
Personal Instructions
Open Instructions from the Agent sidebar to set guidance the Agent should follow in every conversation you start. Use Personal Instructions for preferences that should always apply to your own Agent sessions, such as response format, naming conventions, query defaults, or systems you commonly prioritize.
Personal Instructions are different from Skills:
Personal Instructions are always included in your conversations.
Skills apply when you attach them with
/or when the Agent matches their When to use field.Organizational Skills can be shared with the whole organization, while Personal Instructions stay scoped to your user.
To reset your Personal Instructions, clear the editor and save the empty value.
Adding Context from the UI
While browsing the platform, you can send specific items directly to the Agent as context. Hover over any row in a table or open a detail drawer and click the Add to context button (star icon). The item and its full metadata are attached to your next Agent message.
This lets you point the Agent at exactly what you're looking at without copy-pasting IDs or describing it manually. For example, add a failing span to context and ask "why is this span erroring?" - the Agent already has all the details.
You can also paste a groundcover URL directly into the chat. The Agent extracts the full context from the URL - page, filters, time range, and entity.
Exploring Tool Results
As the Agent works, each step it takes - every query, lookup, or action - appears as an expandable item in the conversation. Click on any step to see what the Agent actually did: the query it ran, the parameters it used, and the raw results it got back.
This gives you full transparency into the Agent's reasoning and lets you verify its work, reuse queries, or continue exploring the data yourself.
Suggestions
After completing an investigation or answering a question, the Agent may offer follow-up suggestions - clickable buttons that continue the conversation in a useful direction. Click a suggestion to automatically send it as your next prompt.
Conversations
The Agent maintains full context within a conversation. Ask follow-ups naturally:
You: What's causing high latency in the payments service?
Agent: (investigates and reports findings)
You: Drill into the database calls specifically
Agent: (focuses on database spans)
You: Create a monitor for this
Previous conversations are saved in the sidebar. Start a new one with Cmd+Shift+O.
Sharing & Forking
You can share any conversation with teammates. Right-click a conversation in the sidebar and select Share to copy a shareable link to your clipboard. Shared conversations have an expiration time.
When someone opens a shared link, they see a read-only view of the full conversation. To continue the investigation from where it left off, they can click Continue this conversation - this forks the conversation into a new, editable copy owned by them. The original shared conversation stays unchanged.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Ctrl + Cmd/Win/Super + A
Toggle the Agent panel
Ctrl + Cmd/Win/Super + S
Capture the current page
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + O
New conversation
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + E
Expand to full screen
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + S
Share conversation
@
Open context mention picker
Cmd/Ctrl + Enter
Steer an active run
Cmd/Ctrl + /
Show keyboard shortcuts
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