DeskMate AI

DeskMate is FanDesk's built-in AI assistant — a named, persistent AI coworker with access to 250+ tools spanning every module in your workspace. It can manage tasks, draft and send emails, schedule meetings, search the knowledge graph, read spreadsheets, run incident workflows, and execute complex multi-step sequences — all through natural conversation.

Accessing DeskMate

Navigate to Chat in the sidebar and open the DeskMate conversation. DeskMate has a dedicated chat interface with:

• Streaming responses — Text appears as it's generated, not all at once
• Thinking indicators — Shows when DeskMate is reasoning through a complex problem
• Tool call visibility — See exactly which tools DeskMate is calling and what results it receives
• Approval prompts — For sensitive actions, DeskMate pauses and asks you to confirm before proceeding

The 3-Tier Model System

DeskMate automatically selects the right AI model for each query. You never need to configure this — it happens transparently based on the complexity of your request.

If DeskMate hits a wall with a faster model, it escalates automatically. For queries you know are complex upfront — "analyze our entire sales pipeline and draft a board update" — DeskMate jumps to a reasoning model immediately.

Knowledge Graph Context

Before responding to any query, DeskMate enriches its context from FanDesk's knowledge graph:

• Semantic search across all your past conversations, tasks, emails, and documents — so "the email from John about the Q3 budget" finds the right thread without exact keywords
• Entity lookups — Who is Acme Corp? What's the status of the API project? DeskMate pulls this automatically
• Relationship traversal — "What's connected to the mobile launch?" surfaces related tasks, people, emails, and pages

This means DeskMate understands references like "the client I emailed yesterday", "the task Sarah mentioned in standup", or "our pricing discussion from last month" without you re-explaining.

250+ Tools Available

DeskMate has access to over 250 tools spanning every FanDesk module:

Task & Project Management

• "Create a task to fix the login bug, assign to John, priority high, due Friday"
• "What are my open tasks in the Backend project?"
• "Move all In Review tasks in Sprint 5 to Done"
• "Show me the project velocity for the last 3 sprints"
• "Batch create tasks from this spec: [paste spec]"
• "What's blocking the API redesign task?"

Email

• "Draft an email to the client about the project delay"
• "What are my most urgent unanswered emails today?"
• "Summarize the email thread with Acme Corp from this week"
• "Reply to the investor email with a meeting request for Thursday"
• "Create a rule to label all emails from @partner.com as Partner"

Calendar & Scheduling

• "What's on my calendar today?"
• "Find a 30-minute slot for a meeting with Sarah this week"
• "Schedule a team sync tomorrow at 2pm"
• "What meetings do I have back-to-back next Monday?"

Documents & Pages

• "Create a meeting notes page for today's standup"
• "Summarize the product requirements doc"
• "Draft a postmortem for last Tuesday's outage"
• "Generate a project brief from this set of tasks"

Knowledge & Research

• "What do we know about the Acme Corp deal?" — searches knowledge graph across all modules
• "Find connections between the API project and the mobile app"
• "Research the latest pricing for competitor X" — web search integrated
• "Who on the team has worked with Stripe integrations before?"

Chat & Communication

• "Post Deployment complete in #engineering"
• "Send a message to the #product channel: launch is delayed by 2 days"
• "Who mentioned the authentication bug recently?"

Drive & Files

• "Create a new spreadsheet called Q4 Budget"
• "Read the data from rows 2 to 10 of the Sales Pipeline sheet"
• "Attach the design spec file to the homepage redesign task"
• "Create a presentation outline for the board meeting"

Incidents

• "Are there any open critical incidents right now?"
• "Create a P1 incident: Payment gateway returning 500s"
• "Generate a postmortem for the outage on March 10th"
• "Who's on-call this week?"

Forms

• "Generate a bug report form with severity, reproduction steps, and expected behavior"
• "Link the onboarding form to the New Hire Onboarding project"

Contacts & CRM

• "Add a note to Acme Corp: discussed expansion in Q2"
• "What's the interaction history with this contact?"
• "Find all contacts from the healthcare industry"

Notes & Reminders

• "Create a note: API rate limiting ideas"
• "Remind me to follow up with Sarah tomorrow at 9am"
• "What reminders do I have this week?"

Approval Workflow

DeskMate requires explicit approval before executing sensitive or irreversible actions:

Actions that always require approval:

• Sending emails on your behalf
• Deleting tasks, files, or records
• Creating incidents or escalations
• Posting messages to channels
• Any action that affects external parties

When approval is needed, DeskMate pauses and shows a clear prompt:

• What it's about to do — The exact action described in plain language
• Approve — Proceed with the action
• Deny — Cancel; DeskMate will suggest alternatives

This approval gate ensures DeskMate never sends an email or makes a change without your explicit confirmation.

Context & Memory

Within a session, DeskMate remembers everything discussed. References like "the task I mentioned" or "that email from earlier" resolve correctly without re-explaining.

Between sessions, DeskMate rebuilds context from the knowledge graph — it's never starting cold even in a new conversation.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of DeskMate

1. Be specific upfront — Include project names, people, dates, and priorities in your first message. "Create a high-priority task called Fix login bug, assign to John, due this Friday, in the Backend project" works in one shot.
2. Chain steps — Multi-step workflows work in a single request: "Find the email from Acme, summarize it, create a task for the action items, and assign to Sarah."
3. Ask about your workspace — "What do we know about X?" and "What's the status of Y?" leverage the full knowledge graph across all modules.
4. Use it for research — DeskMate can search the web and synthesize answers, combining external information with your internal knowledge.
5. Check tool calls — Expand the tool call view to see exactly what DeskMate looked up — useful for understanding how it reached a conclusion.

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Next: Learn about calendar management in Calendar.