> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.prodexlabs.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Dexter

> Your factory's AI operations partner, the Home page of ProDex, where every conversation starts.

## Overview

Dexter is ProDex's embedded AI operations partner. It has direct, sandboxed access to your factory's data and platform artifacts, and works alongside you in natural language to ingest and transform data, build and run simulation models, configure planning optimizations, analyze results, generate shareable reports, and edit configuration across the platform.

Dexter defaults to **asking rather than guessing**. When something material is ambiguous — a column's meaning, a modeling assumption, a tradeoff — it surfaces the question rather than picking silently, and it exposes its reasoning as it works so you can audit every step.

Each [Factory](/product/factory-management) gets its own Dexter with its own memory and its own access boundary. Dexter cannot see across factories and has no open access to the public internet — it works inside your factory's sandbox. It can, however, reach the external systems your organization has connected: configured integrations let it read from and call your ERP, MES, and databases.

## The Dexter Page

Dexter is the Home page — the first thing you land on after login. The left sidebar has four top-level sections:

* **Chat** — your conversations with Dexter, with search and history grouped by date. See [Chat, Tasks & Reviews](/product/dexter/chat-and-tasks).
* **Knowledge Base** — what Dexter knows about your factory: its [memories](/product/dexter/memories) and your [standing rules](/product/dexter/memories#rules-and-preferences). (Uploaded files are **not** here — they live under **Data → My Data**; see [User Files](/product/dexter/user-files).)
* **Workflows** — reusable, runnable procedures you hand to Dexter. See [Custom Workflows](/product/dexter/custom-workflows).
* **Projects** — Dexter's longer-running, phased work. See [Projects](/product/dexter/projects).

While you're on other pages of the platform, an **AI Assistant** dock keeps the active conversation available.

### Starting a conversation

Start with **New Conversation** or just type in the current one — plain language, no slash commands or special syntax. A fresh conversation opens with quick-start cards that seed common starting points. The input toolbar takes typed prompts and drag-and-drop attachments, and lets you:

* **Attach a file** (paperclip) — from your machine or reused from [User Files](/product/dexter/user-files).
* **Set the conversation type** — **Chat** by default; switch to **Project** or **Workflow** to open a [Project](/product/dexter/projects) or run a [workflow](/product/dexter/custom-workflows) up front.
* **Watch context usage** — a live indicator of how full the conversation's context window is. As it fills, older turns get compacted; a high reading is a good cue to start fresh.

Conversations are independent — each has its own working context and history — but the [knowledge base](/product/dexter/memories) and every platform artifact are shared across all of them.

### Message actions

Hover a message to act on it:

* **Your own messages** show when they were sent and — when Dexter saved a checkpoint at that turn — an **hourglass** that opens a read-only, point-in-time view of your factory as it stood then.
* **Dexter's replies** carry **copy**, **thumbs up**, and **thumbs down**. Thumbs are **product feedback** — your ratings go to the ProDex team to help us improve Dexter; they don't retrain it or change how it behaves inside your factory. To change how Dexter works for you, set a [rule](/product/dexter/memories#rules-and-preferences) or just tell it directly.

## Session Context

Dexter always knows what page you're on and which objects you have selected when you send a message. You don't have to restate "the Line A model" or "the run I have open" — Dexter reads that from the page.

<Note>
  Context is captured when you **send** a message. If you switch pages mid-thought, make the switch first, then send.
</Note>

## What You'll See While Dexter Works

* **Every tool call is visible and expandable** — file reads, scripts, queries, edits. Nothing happens behind the curtain.
* **Thinking vs. sub-agents** — a **"Thought for…"** indicator is Dexter reasoning before it answers (expand it to read that reasoning); a **sub-agent** appears as its own **pill** when Dexter hands a subtask to a specialized helper (click it to watch that helper's transcript).
* **Long jobs run asynchronously** — simulations, planning runs, and other long tasks kick off in the background and report back when they finish.

Alongside the reply stream, Dexter keeps a live **task list**, shares **review briefs** before involved work, drops **action cards** for steps that live on another page, and asks **structured questions** as clickable cards — with generated files and the task list collecting in the right-hand **Artifacts** panel. That's the full interaction surface; see [Chat, Tasks & Reviews](/product/dexter/chat-and-tasks). Higher-stakes approvals run through [Gates](/product/gates).

<Tip>
  **Use one conversation per topic.** Long conversations eventually lose their earliest context. Starting fresh — and pointing Dexter at the relevant model, run, or project so it reloads that context — is usually faster than pushing an old conversation further.
</Tip>

## Attachments

Drag files into the input or use **Attach**. Dexter reads tabular data, documents, images, and [CAD files](/product/cad/supported-formats). It profiles the data it inspects — sampling large files and disclosing the scope of what it read rather than implying it read every row — and asks before assuming what a column or code means. Uploads persist and are managed under **Data → My Data**; see [User Files](/product/dexter/user-files) for formats, limits, and lifecycle.

## Capabilities at a Glance

* **Data** — profiles uploads and builds documented [pipelines](/product/templates) that trace every derived value back to its source. See [User Files](/product/dexter/user-files).
* **Simulate** — creates and edits every simulation object, runs models, and explains throughput, utilization, and bottlenecks. See [Simulation](/product/simulation-overview).
* **Plan** — configures and runs the planning optimizer end-to-end. See [Planning](/product/planning-overview).
* **Insights** — builds free-form, factory-scoped dashboards. See [Insights](/product/insights).
* **What-if** — compares scenarios with [Experiments](/product/experiments) and [Snapshots](/reference/snapshots), and characterizes variability with [Monte Carlo](/product/monte-carlo).
* **BOMs & CAD** — builds [BOMs](/product/bom-overview), explores the graph, drives the configurator, and analyzes [CAD](/product/cad/analysis).
* **Reports** — authors polished, shareable PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel deliverables. See [Reports](/product/dexter/reports).

## Building Blocks

Each concept has its own page — the short version:

* **[Memories](/product/dexter/memories)** — Dexter's structured, per-factory knowledge base of your operation, your data sources, and the artifacts it has built. A read-only [organization layer](/product/dexter/organization-memories) sits alongside it.
* **[Rules & Preferences](/product/dexter/memories#rules-and-preferences)** — your standing instructions for how Dexter works in this factory, applied in every conversation.
* **[User Files](/product/dexter/user-files)** — everything you've uploaded, managed under **Data → My Data** and readable in any conversation.
* **[Reports](/product/dexter/reports)** — polished deliverables Dexter generates on request, delivered in chat and in the relevant project's phase folder.
* **[Scheduled Jobs](/product/dexter/scheduled-jobs)** — recurring or one-off tasks Dexter runs on a schedule; each run opens as its own conversation.
* **[Custom Workflows](/product/dexter/custom-workflows)** — reusable procedures you and Dexter define once and trigger by name later.
* **[Projects](/product/dexter/projects)** — durable, phased containers for multi-session work.

<Info>
  Dexter can also query connected ERP, MES, and database systems directly. Integrations are configured by the ProDex team for your organization; once active, Dexter can use them in any conversation with no per-conversation setup.
</Info>

## Limits

* **No open web access.** Dexter doesn't browse the public internet. Through configured integrations it can read from and query the external systems your organization has connected (ERP, MES, databases), but nothing beyond those.
* **Sandboxed to a single factory** — one factory per conversation, no cross-factory visibility.
* **Changes land immediately.** There's no global undo button — the quickest way to roll back something Dexter just did is to ask it to revert that change.

<Warning>
  Changes Dexter makes take effect immediately. If one isn't what you wanted, the best way to roll it back is to tell Dexter to revert what it just did. For risky or exploratory changes on simulation models, take a [Snapshot](/reference/snapshots) first so you can compare and roll back cleanly.
</Warning>

## Best Practices

* **Name specific entities** ("the CNC station on Line B", "the July demand plan") rather than "the thing we looked at earlier."
* **Let Dexter ask.** Answers to its questions are recorded once and reused — a five-minute Q\&A up front saves rework later.
* **Approve or push back on review briefs.** They're the point where Dexter is asking you to catch anything wrong before it becomes commitment.
* **Iterate.** Short, focused turns beat one giant prompt.
* **Audit [Memories](/product/dexter/memories) and [Rules](/product/dexter/memories#rules-and-preferences) periodically.** They shape every future response — keep them accurate and prune what's outdated.