Ask Trio Assistant

Ask Trio is the AI assistant built into the teacher portal. It answers questions about Trio, advises on running and growing a music studio, and points you to the right page for a task. Open it with the Ask Trio button - the sparkle icon in the bottom-right corner of your teacher-portal pages. On a phone, open the menu at the top left and tap Ask Trio at the bottom of the menu.

The sparkle button does not show on the Messages page, on any tab, including Group Messages. It does show on the Moderation Inbox. In a conversation, use Help me reply instead. To ask Trio something while you are in Messages, open the panel on another page first: it stays open as you move around the portal.

Opening the Assistant

Click the sparkle button to open the Ask Trio panel on the right. A new, empty conversation shows a few suggested questions, such as "How do I set up payments?" Some pages show three questions for that page instead. Type your own question in the box at the bottom and press Enter or the send button. Press Escape or the close icon to close the panel.

On a computer, the panel stays open while you move between pages, so you can follow its steps in the rest of the window. On a phone or small tablet, it covers the screen and closes when you tap a link in it. You cannot move or resize the panel.

When you open the panel again, it starts a new conversation. To go back to an earlier one, use Recent conversations in the panel header.

The assistant is available to Owner, Admin, Teacher, and Staff roles. Teachers and staff get answers limited to what their role can see. For example, in Ask Trio answers teachers see only their own students, and roles without billing access get no billing data.

What It Can Do

Ask Trio works across four areas:

• Your studio - questions about your own students, families, lessons, invoices, and schedule
• Trio features - how to do something in the app, and where to find it
• The studio business - raising rates, student retention, policies, difficult parent conversations, recitals, and seasonal scheduling
• Teaching music - practice, technique, repertoire and teaching ideas, such as how to motivate a student to practice

It can also draft messages to families and students. In a conversation on the Messages page, Help me reply opens Ask Trio with that conversation in context (see Messages and Conversations).

What It Won't Do

Ask Trio gives advice and links. You take each action yourself, such as creating or deleting students, sending messages, charging cards, changing studio settings, or voiding invoices. When an action is needed, the assistant gives you a link and you complete the step yourself.

It declines requests with no connection to music teaching or the studio, such as a recipe or general coding help.

AI Credits

Ask Trio uses AI credits from your studio's shared monthly pool, with AI lesson notes, "Import from a book" and the Week in Review summary.

Ask Trio uses one credit each time it asks the AI model for a reply. A simple question uses one credit. A question that looks up your studio data can take a few steps, and each step uses one credit.

• Free - 25 AI credits a month (up to 5 a day)
• Pro - 500 AI credits a month (up to 50 a day)
• Max - 5,000 AI credits a month (up to 250 a day)

When your studio has used its credits, Ask Trio shows a notice that says when they come back. On Free and Pro, the notice also has an upgrade link. Only the studio owner can change the plan, so other roles ask the owner to upgrade. Owners and admins see credit use on Plan & usage. See Trio plans and your subscription.

Action Links

When an answer relates to a page, Ask Trio adds a button below its reply, such as Connect Stripe, Add Student, Create Invoice or Send Message. Select it to go straight there. Every button leads to a real Trio page.

Knowledge Base Citations

When a reply draws on a help article, Ask Trio adds a button that opens the full article in a new tab.

Conversations and Feedback

Open an earlier conversation from Recent conversations in the panel header. After each answer, you can give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, which helps improve future answers.

When to Use It vs. Read Help Directly

• Quick question or a draft - use Ask Trio
• Learning a feature thoroughly - browse the Help Center
• An idea or a problem to tell the Trio team about - select Send feedback in Help & Support in the sidebar. Every role can use it, on every plan.
• Reporting a bug or needing support - contact your studio's support channel; the assistant cannot file reports or escalate to a person

Related

• Your Dashboard - where the assistant button appears
• Studio Settings - a common destination from assistant answers
• Owner Settings - payments and other owner-only options