When you sign in to Lens, you land in the Lens console. This is where you and your teammates manage everything behind the scenes: the content Lens learns from, the places where it answers questions, and the reports that show what people are asking. Your customers never see the console.
This article gives you a quick tour of the menu on the left, the Administration menu, the Dashboard, the command palette, and your account menu.
The Menu on the Left
The menu on the left is how you get around Lens. At the top, you'll see the name of the workspace you're in, and you can click it to switch to another workspace. Below that, you'll find these pages:
- Dashboard: Your home page in Lens. It shows a short to-do list, quick checks on your setup, and how many questions people are asking.
- Source: Where you add and manage your knowledge sources, which are the places Lens reads from, like your website or help center. You also create source groups here.
- Knowledge: Where you can see your knowledge layer, which is the one place Lens keeps everything it has learned. It has sub-menu options: Knowledge layer and Governance (only on paid plans).
- Channel: Where you set up the places Lens answers questions. It has a tab for each kind of channel: Widget, MCP, API, and Answer engines.
- Reporting: Where you see what people are asking and how well Lens is answering. It includes Metrics and Interactions.
At the bottom of the menu, you'll find the Administration section, which is covered in the next section.
Note
Some menu items show a Soon label. These items aren't available to use yet.
The Administration Menu
The Administration section at the bottom of the menu holds the settings for your workspace. What you see here depends on your role:
- Admin: Sees People, Workspace, and Help.
- Member: Sees Help only.
People
The People page lists everyone in your workspace, along with each person's role and the date they were added. At the top, you can see how many seats you've used, which is how many people your plan lets you have in the workspace. From here, you can invite teammates, change their roles, and remove them.
Workspace
Next to Workspace, a small label shows which plan the workspace is on, like Free. Click Workspace to open its settings, which have three tabs:
- General: Change your workspace's name. At the bottom, the Danger Zone has a Delete workspace button.
- Billing: See your plan, check how much of each plan limit you've used, and upgrade your plan.
- API keys: Create a source management API key. An API key works like a password that lets other software connect to Lens. This kind of key lets your own tools add or update this workspace's sources automatically.
Important
Deleting a workspace permanently removes everything in it, including its sources, widgets, teammates, and reporting history. You can't undo this, so double-check that you're in the right workspace first.
Help
Click Help to open the Get help window. It has two options:
- Browse FAQs: Find answers and guidance for using Lens.
- Create support ticket: Contact Thought Industries Support. Lens shows you the details it will share about what you were working on, so you can review them before you send your ticket.
Tip
Use the Lens help bar at the bottom of the console to ask a question and get a quick answer.
The Dashboard
The Dashboard is the first page you see when you sign in, and it says Welcome to your workspace at the top. It has three parts:
- To Do: A short checklist to help you finish setting up, like adding the Lens script to your website and adding knowledge sources. A progress bar shows how far along you are.
- Insights: Quick checks on your setup, like how many knowledge sources are connected and whether answer engines are turned on.
- Your Lens activity: Key numbers, like how many questions people asked. Click Select dates to change the time period.
The Command Palette
The command palette is a quick search box that lets you jump to any page or workspace without clicking through the menu.
To use the command palette:
- From anywhere in Lens, press ⌘K on a Mac.
- Start typing the name of a page, like "Reporting" or "Channel," or the name of a workspace.
- Select a result to go there.
Your Account Menu
Click your name at the bottom of the menu on the left to open your account menu. From here, you can go to:
- Profile: See and change your name, email address, and password. Switch Lens theme between light and dark mode.
- Product feedback: Send feedback about Lens to Thought Industries.
- Sign out: Sign out of Lens.
FAQs
Only Admins can see People and Workspace. If you're a Member, you'll only see Help under Administration. Ask an Admin in your workspace if you need something changed.
Create a new workspace when you want things kept completely apart, like internal content and customer content, or two different brands. Each workspace has its own content, channels, and teammates. Source Groups might be enough to keep internal and external content separate for each channel.
Both work like passwords that let other software connect to Lens, but they do different jobs. Keys on the API keys tab under Workspace let your own tools manage this workspace's sources. Keys on the API tab under Channel let your developers ask Lens questions from their own apps, and each key only answers from the source groups you choose.