When research is useful
Ordinary drafting uses the conversation and permitted context you provide. Little Engine is the separate online research workflow for questions that require public information, such as a product’s published compatibility, official instructions, or a current public policy. It requires internet and online AI processing. In version 0.20.57, Private AI can stay selected while you approve a single online research request after reading its disclosure. Research is never an offline or silently local operation.
Ask a focused research question
- Open the reply workflow for the intended email.
- Choose the Little Engine/research action.
- State the specific fact to verify and, where useful, the official product or organization.
- Let the research finish, then inspect the sources and proposed answer.
- Open important source pages yourself and verify dates and context before using their claims in your reply.
Prefer a question with a clear source of truth. “Check the manufacturer’s official instructions for this exact model” is more useful than “find everything about it.”
Example: product compatibility
Customer question: “Will this accessory work with my device?”
Research direction: “Use the manufacturer’s official compatibility page for Model EXAMPLE-2. Check whether it lists Device DEMO-4. If it doesn’t, say the compatibility is unconfirmed rather than guessing.”
Review goal: Confirm the exact model and revision, check whether an adapter or software version is required, and ensure the draft does not present a similar product as the same one.
What research does not establish
A public webpage cannot prove the state of a private order, shipment, refund, or bank transaction. Use your actual order-system evidence for those questions. A retrieved source can also be outdated, incomplete, promotional, or wrong. The presence of a citation does not prove the sentence citing it is supported.
Credits
Paid plans have a separate research allowance: the verified catalog currently includes 10 research credits per billing period with Basic and 50 with Pro Monthly. One successful paid research reply uses one research credit. Trial research uses a variable amount of the trial balance, starting at 11 credits, and can need more than the remaining balance. Check the app’s current usage display before starting research.
Keep sensitive context out of research
Review what you are asking to search. Avoid putting private customer details, credentials, or internal documents into a public-web query. Cloud research and drafting are separate from local OCR or local style analysis. Use Reply context and the app’s processing notices to understand what is available to the operation.
If a source cannot be verified
Do not invent a replacement URL, price, availability, or release date. Ask the sender for the missing model information, use a clearly qualified statement, or research again with a narrower question. A reply that says “I could not confirm that from the official specification” is often more useful than a confident guess.
Research from Private AI in the 0.20.57 release
- Open the intended email and invoke Little Engine from the floating reply window or full editor.
- Read the per-request disclosure before approving. The email/conversation, current directions, selected reference or captured-text excerpts, and enabled writing profile/examples can be sent through LittleDraft to OpenAI. A redacted research query is used for web search; raw screenshots, original files, and the entire Library are not uploaded.
- Choose Continue online to approve this request, or Cancel to stop before a research request is created.
- Review the proposed reply and its sources. Approval does not establish that a source is correct or supports the conclusion.
- For another research request, review and approve again. The selected Private Mode remains unchanged, so subsequent ordinary drafting stays local.
Fictional workflow: You draft a German acknowledgement locally, then need to verify the manufacturer’s public compatibility list. Start Little Engine, inspect the disclosure, and approve that online request if appropriate. After reviewing the sources, draft your next ordinary reply locally. The research operation uses its applicable online allowance; it does not make local drafting consume cloud reply credits.
These approval controls are included in the public 0.20.57 release. Older apps may require selecting Cloud AI instead. Local Pre-Drafts do not automatically start online research.