| 1 | # Conversations |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Real-Time Conversations is a live, interactive interface for engaging in a back-and-forth dialogue with Netdata AI. Unlike Investigations and Insights reports that generate comprehensive async documents, Conversations are designed for the rapid-fire "what if" questions and quick exploration that happen in the heat of troubleshooting. |
| 4 | |
| 5 |  |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ## When to use it |
| 8 | |
| 9 | - Initial, exploratory phase of an investigation |
| 10 | - Quick questions and ad-hoc data pulls |
| 11 | - Rapidly testing hypotheses during incidents |
| 12 | - Interactive data exploration with instant visualizations |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ## Live Exhibits |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Netdata AI doesn't just respond with text—it generates **Live Exhibits**. These are rich, interactive data visualizations (charts, tables, and log snippets) embedded directly into your conversation. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | This eliminates context-switching: you don't need to open new dashboards or manually search for the data the AI references. The evidence appears inline, right in the flow of your conversation. |
| 19 | |
| 20 |  |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ## Example workflow |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Imagine you're investigating a slow API endpoint: |
| 25 | |
| 26 | **You:** "Show me the average latency for the `api-gateway` service over the last 3 hours." |
| 27 | |
| 28 | **Netdata AI:** A real-time chart visualizing the P95 latency appears in the chat. You notice a clear spike an hour ago. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | **You:** "What was the CPU usage on the underlying Kubernetes pods during that spike?" |
| 31 | |
| 32 | **Netdata AI:** A table appears listing the pods and their peak CPU usage during the incident window. One pod stands out. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | **You:** "Show me any error logs from that specific pod around that time." |
| 35 | |
| 36 | **Netdata AI:** A snippet of relevant logs appears, showing "database connection timeout" errors. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | In under a minute, you've gone from a vague symptom to a clear, evidence-backed root cause—all within a single, continuous conversation. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | ## Conversations vs Investigations |
| 41 | |
| 42 | Use the right tool for the right job: |
| 43 | |
| 44 | | Feature | Conversations | Investigations & Insights | |
| 45 | |---------|--------------|---------------------------| |
| 46 | | **Best for** | Exploratory, real-time dialogue | Deep, comprehensive analysis | |
| 47 | | **Output** | Interactive chat with live exhibits | Shareable PDF reports | |
| 48 | | **Speed** | Instant responses | ~2 minutes to generate | |
| 49 | | **Use case** | During incidents, testing hypotheses | Post-mortems, capacity planning, stakeholder updates | |
| 50 | |
| 51 | **Typical workflow:** Start with a Conversation to explore and form a hypothesis, then trigger an Investigation to generate a thorough, shareable report. |
| 52 | |
| 53 | ## How to start a conversation |
| 54 | |
| 55 | Click the **"Conversations"** button above the space selectors in Netdata Cloud. Your conversation history is saved, allowing you to pick up an investigation where you left off. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | ## AI credits consumption |
| 58 | |
| 59 | Usage is based on AI credits (10 monthly complimentary credits on Business plans, plus the ability to top up as needed). |
| 60 | |
| 61 | The conversations window displays a live measure of credits consumed by the current conversation: |
| 62 | - Short conversations use a small fraction of a single credit |
| 63 | - Long, involved conversations may consume more than 1 credit |
| 64 | |
| 65 | ## Availability |
| 66 | |
| 67 | Real-Time Conversations are available for all users on a Business plan or free trial. |
| 68 | |
| 69 | ## See also |
| 70 | |
| 71 | - [Investigations](/docs/netdata-ai/investigations/index.md) – comprehensive async analysis |
| 72 | - [Insights](/docs/ml-ai/ai-insights.md) – on-demand professional reports |
| 73 | - [Troubleshooting](/docs/netdata-ai/troubleshooting/index.md) – alert analysis and anomaly exploration |