Quick Start
This guide gets you from zero to your first AI conversation in under two minutes.
Step 1 — Sign in
Open Kognar Platform and sign in with your email, Google, or Apple account. See Authentication if you need help.
Step 2 — Start a conversation
Once signed in, you'll see the main chat interface:
- The sidebar on the left lists your conversations
- The chat area in the center is where messages appear
- The input bar at the bottom is where you type
Click the + button in the sidebar (or press Ctrl/Cmd+N) to start a new conversation. Type your first message and press Enter to send.
Step 3 — Choose a model
At the top of the chat, click the model selector to choose which AI model to use. Models are grouped by provider (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, etc.) and can be filtered by use case:
| Filter | Best for |
|---|---|
| General | Everyday questions and tasks |
| Code | Programming help and code review |
| Image | Generating or editing images |
| Research | Web-connected research tasks |
You can only change the model before sending the first message in a conversation. To use a different model, start a new conversation.
Step 4 — Try a quick action
If you're not sure what to type, the empty chat screen shows quick start prompts. Click one to pre-fill a useful starting message:
- Code — Review code for readability and performance
- Research — Search the web for up-to-date information
- Analysis — Summarize and analyze text
- Summarize — Get an objective summary of content
- Writing — Draft a professional email
Step 5 — Explore from here
Now that you have your first conversation going, explore what's possible:
- Attach files — Click the paperclip icon to add documents or images
- Enable agents — Click the gear icon to turn on Web Search or other agents
- Organize — Create folders to group related conversations
- Customize — Open Settings (
Ctrl/Cmd+U) to configure your preferences
Interface overview
Keyboard shortcuts at a glance
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl/Cmd+N | New conversation |
Ctrl/Cmd+K | Search conversations |
Ctrl/Cmd+O | Attach a file |
Ctrl/Cmd+U | Open Settings |
Enter | Send message |
Shift+Enter | New line (without sending) |
Escape | Close modals |
Full reference: Keyboard Shortcuts