Giving it materials
Three ways to hand over files, what it accepts, the size limits, and the one difference between a chat and a handed-off task.
There are three ways to hand a file over, and they all end up in the same place:
- Attach files in the composer, and pick them.
- Paste into the composer. Pasted screenshots and clipboard images work too; they get named for you.
- Drag and drop onto the composer.
Nothing else is needed — no upload step to complete first, no folder to organise.
What it accepts
Section titled “What it accepts”- Plain text and Markdown, CSV, JSON, and common source files
(
.ts,.tsx,.js,.jsx,.py,.html,.css,.xml,.yaml,.yml) - Word (
.doc,.docx), Excel (.xls,.xlsx), PowerPoint (.ppt,.pptx) - Images — PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP
Anything outside that is refused at the door with a plain reason rather than accepted and quietly ignored: “…isn’t supported. Add a document, spreadsheet, image, PDF, text or source file under 5 MB.”
The limits
Section titled “The limits”Five files per run, 5 MB per file. If you have more than five, either send the five that matter or combine them first. If a file is over the limit, exporting the relevant sheet or pages usually gets it under.
Chats take more than handed-off tasks do
Section titled “Chats take more than handed-off tasks do”This is the one asymmetry worth knowing before you plan a job:
| Attached material | |
|---|---|
| A chat | Up to five files, any supported type, 5 MB each |
| A handed-off task | Up to five files, plain text only, 100 KB in total |
The reason is where the work happens: PDF, Office and image inputs are handled in the live chat so they can be mounted in the secure workspace. So if the job depends on a PDF, a spreadsheet or a screenshot, do it in a chat. Hand off a task when the material is text — a list, a brief, a pasted export.
The check happens on both sides, so a task that exceeds this is refused when you create it, not halfway through the run.
Say what each file is
Section titled “Say what each file is”Files arrive without their story. “The first one is last quarter’s actuals, the second is the forecast I’m trying to correct” costs you eight words and removes the most common failure — correct work performed on the wrong file. Where two files disagree, say which one wins.
Scanned documents
Section titled “Scanned documents”It can pull the text out of a PDF, convert most files into clean editable text, and read and write Word documents, spreadsheets and slide decks. Separately from that, some makers document their own model as taking a PDF file directly rather than text pulled out of it first — models whose maker says they can read PDFs lists the ones you can pick that carry the claim, and is explicit that it is their claim rather than something we measured.
What it cannot do is read a scan. A PDF that is only page images with no text layer yields nothing, and in that case it tells you the document came back empty instead of inventing contents that sound like your document. If that happens, send the original file rather than a scan or photo of it, or paste the relevant text in directly.
Things you keep re-attaching
Section titled “Things you keep re-attaching”If the same material is really an instruction — a format you always want, a checklist you always follow — teach it once instead of attaching it every time. That lives under Things you taught it, on the Assistants screen, and is reusable in any chat afterwards.